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MISSIONARY 

w 

•CONSCIENCE. 

BY 

REV.  J.  H.  PRITCHETT, 

One  of  the  Secretaries  of  the  Board  of  Missions  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South. 


Published  fok  the  Board  of  Missi'ons 

BY  THE 

Publishing  House  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South, 
Barbee  &  Smith,  Agents, 

Nashville,  Tenn. 

1901. 


INTRODUCTION. 


contents  of  this  booklet 
have,  for  the  most  part,  been 
already  published  in  the  form  of  arti¬ 
cles  in  our  periodicals.  They  assume 
this  form  at  the  instance  of  those  who 
have  a  right  to  command  them,  and 
who  think  that  they  have  yet  a  further 
Truly, 

J.  H.  PRITCHETT 


mission. 


A  MISSIONARY  CONSCIENCE,  AND  HOW 
TO  SUPPLY  ITS  LACK. 


TN  undertaking  this  theme  it  seems  of  primary 
importance  to  discuss  briefly  several  prelimi¬ 
nary  questions. 

I,  What  Is  Conscience  ? 

Touching  this  question,  there  is  in  this  day  of 
ours  a  great  deal  of  superficial  thinking,  loose 
writing,  and  inconsequential  talking.  I  pray  that 
this  contribution  may  not  justly  be  condemned  to 
the  same  category.  If  this  is  to  be  its  fate,  how¬ 
ever,  I  shall  not  undertake  to  hide  my  own  sin 
under  the  cloak  of  much-abused  science.  In  seek¬ 
ing  a  definition,  therefore,  I  shall  not  enter  the 
field  of  metaphysical  disquisition,  nor  do  I  prom¬ 
ise  to  make  that  definition  scientifically  bomb¬ 
proof.  All  that  the  occasion  requires,  and  all  that 
I  shall  attempt,  is  a  plain,  commonsense  state¬ 
ment  which  shall  appeal  to  God’s  Word  for  its 
vindication,  and,  thus  supported,  need  not  shun 
or  abjectly  cower  in  the  august  presence  of  hu¬ 
man  philosophy. 

In  the  highest  sense  of  the  term,  man  is  a  cos¬ 
mopolite — a  citizen  of  the  universe.  God  made 
him  so.  His  body  is  of  the  earth  earthy,  and  must 
share  the  fortunes  of  all  inanimate  matter.  His 
soul  or  life  allies  him  with  all  things  that  have 
life  in  this  mundane  sphere.  His  spirit  makes 
him  kin  to  all  spirits,  and  chiefest  of  all  make 
him  the  child  of  God.  Standing  on  the  pinnacle 

(3) 


4 


A  Missionary  Consciefice, 


of  earth  life,  he  finds  the  conditions  of  his  soul 
superiority  below  him ;  so,  likewise,  standing  at 
the  base  of  those  spiritual  heights  of  which  he  is 
capable,  that  soul  superiority  furnishes  the  condi¬ 
tion  for  the  attainment  of  those  heights.  In  or¬ 
der  to  knowledge  of,  and  communion  with,  each 
of  the  spheres  in  which  he  finds  himself,  man  is 
possessed  of  attributes,  the  aggregate  of  wdiich 
constitute  him  man,  and  distinguish  him  from 
every  other  being  in  the  universe.  The  attributes 
of  his  lower  nature  are  incipient  manifestations 
of  those  of  his  higher,  while  at  the  same  time 
they  furnish  the  conditions  of  its  possibilities. 
Besides  these,  however,  which  are  carried  from 
the  lower  into  the  higher,  there  appear  in  the 
higher  certain  attributes  that  do  not  obtain  in 
the  lower.  They  come  down  from  above.  Chief 
among  these  is  the  conscience.  It  is  neither  of 
the  Intellect,  the  Sensibilities,  nor  the  Will ; 
though  it  is  conditioned  on  all  of  them,  and  in 
turn  commands  them  all.  It  does  not,  as  many 
seem  to  think  and  teach,  exercise  the  office  of 
discriminator  between  right  and  wrong,  either  in 
the  abstract  or  the  concrete.  The  first  is  the  func¬ 
tion  of  law;  the  second,  of  judgment.  Con¬ 
science  is  neither  law  nor  judgment.  But  when 
a  law  or  rule  of  right  has  been  accepted  as  su¬ 
preme,  when  judgment  has  made  out  a  specific 
case  under  that  law,  then  conscience,  as  judge 
supreme,  with  an  authority  that  can  not  be  ques¬ 
tioned,  with  an  emphasis  that  can  not  be  disre¬ 
garded  with  impunity,  says :  “  Obey  the  law ;  do 
the  right.”  And,  if  its  mandate  is  obeyed,  it  re- 


And  How  to  Supply  Its  Lack. 


5 


wards  as  no  other  hand  this  side  of  heaven  can 
reward.  But  if  it  is  disregarded,  it  punishes  as 
nothing  else  this  side  of  hell  can  punish.  This 
is  conscience,  and  these  are  its  functions.  Its 
dicta  are  always  in  accordance  with  the  highest 
law  and  best  judgment  possible  to  the  man  ;  and 
while  they  concern  and  affect  him  alone,  they  are 
to  him  infallible.  A  higher  law,  unknown  to  the 
individual  by  no  fault  of  his— a  judgment  impos¬ 
sible  to  him  under  the  conditions — must  not  be 
held  as  vitiating  either  the  rightness  or  authority 
of  those  dicta.  No  man  can  do  right  and  violate 
his  conscience;  no  man  can  do  wrong  (judged 
by  the  law  under  which  he  acts )  and  follow  its 
dictates.  The  evil  of  every  wrong  life  is  not  to 
be  found  either  in  the  absence  or  perversion  of 
conscience,  but  in  the  absence  of  a  higher  law  in 
the  heart,  and  a  better  judgment  in  the  mind; 
which  two  alone  furnish  the  condition  of  a  per¬ 
fect  conscience.  To  remedy  that  evil,  therefore, 
we  must  begin,  not  as  we  sometimes  say,  by  creat¬ 
ing  or  correcting  or  educating  or  even  arousing 
conscience,  but  by  supplying  the  conditions,  viz  : 
a  supreme  rule  of  right,  together  with  a  thorough¬ 
ly  educated  judgment,  which  will  understand- 
ingly  and  honestly  present  every  case  under  that 
rule.  When  this  is  done,  then  conscience  will  not 
only  always  be  found  in  its  place,  but  always  is¬ 
suing  its  decisions  with  unerring  accuracy  and  in 
perfect  accord  with  the  highest  behests  of  right. 

This  brief  and  informal  statement  of  the  nature 
and  functions  of  conscience  I  believe  to  be  in 
perfect  keeping  with  the  Bible  use  of  the  term 


6 


A  Missionary  Conscience, 


and  the  Bible  treatment  of  the  subject.  The 
term  occurs  twenty-nine  times  in  our  standard 
version  of  the  New  Testament  Scriptures.  It  is 
significant  that  it  has  no  place  in  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment.  John  uses  it  once  in  speaking  of  the  self¬ 
conviction  of  those  evil-minded  persons  who 
brought  the  sinful  woman  to  Christ  for  judg¬ 
ment.  Without  antagonizing  Moses,  or  running 
counter  to  Roman  supremacy,  one  of  which  they 
thought  he  must  do,  in  one  short  sentence  the 
Master  started  a  series  of  forces  that  soon  sent 
his  would-be  accusers  whence  they  came  :  ( i )  His 
interpretation  of  the  law;  {2)  the  personal  appli¬ 
cation  that  each  accuser  made  of  that  law  to  him¬ 
self;  (3)  conscience,  responding  to  these  condi¬ 
tions,  confirms  both  the  law  and  the  application; 

(4)  conviction,  pungent  and  irresistable,  follows; 

• 

(5)  “they  went  out  one  by  one.”  Peter  uses  the 
term  three  times  in  his  first  epistle,  intlicating  by 
it  each  time  that  inner  and  final  court  of  appeals 
at  which  loyalty  to  God,  faithfulness  to  Christ, 
and  duty  to  man  is  each  tested.  The  term  ap¬ 
pears  twenty-five  times  in  Paul’s  speeches  and 
epistles.  In  his  defense  both  before  the  Jewish 
council  and  the  court  of  Felix,  he  predicates  his 
blamelessness  of  the  fact  that  he  had  kept  a  “good 
conscience” — “a  conscience  void  of  offense” — 
i.  e.,  according  to  the  highest  law  known  to  him, 
and  the  best  judgment  possible  to  him,  he  had 
obeyed  the  dictates  of  his  conscience.  In  his  let¬ 
ters  to  the  Corinthians,  to  Timothy,  and  to  the 
Hebrews,  the  term  has  essentially  the  same 
significance.  The  phrases  “good  conscience,” 


A?id  How  to  Supply  Its  Lack.  7 

“  weak  conscience,”  “  evil  conscience,”  etc.,  evi¬ 
dently  point  out  the  effect  of  faithful  or  unfaith¬ 
ful  dealing  with  one’s  conscience. 

The  next  question  to  consider  is  : 

Ih  What  Is  Implied  By  a  “  Missionary  Conscience  ?  ” 

In  the  light  of  what  has  gone  before,  this  is 
easily  answered.  Conscience  assumes  missionary 
functions  whenever  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ 
becomes  dominant  in  thought,  in  affection,  in 
purpose.  The  absence  of  such  a  conscience  can 
be  accounted  for  only  on  the  followdng  condi¬ 
tions  : 

1.  The  utter  absence  of  the  gospel.  This  is 
literal  heathenism. 

2.  The  lack  of  appetency  for  the  gospel.  This 
is  practical  heathenism. 

3.  A  formal  acceptance  of  the  gospel  without 
an  experience  of  its  power  to  save.  This  is  form¬ 
alism. 

4.  A  Christian  experience  that  has  been  dwarfed 
and  deadened  by  the  cares  of  this  world,  the  de¬ 
ceitfulness  of  riches,  and  the  lust  of  other  things. 
This  is  incipient  apostasy. 

A  third  question  claiming  our  attention  in  the 
natural  order  is : 

in.  Is  the  Christian  Ministry  and  the  Church  of 
To.'day  Lacking  in  Such  Conscience?  If  so,  What 
Are  the  Evidences  ? 

I  shall  leave  the  second  part  of  the  question  to 
answer  the  first.  In  answering  the  second  I  shall 
adduce  only  such  facts  as  are  notorious  and  in- 
controvertable. 

I.  The  Church  of  to-day  is  rich  and  increased 


8  A  Missionary  Conscience, 

in  worldly  goods,  and  Laodicea-like,  she  boasts 
of  it.  She  proudly  proclaims  that  the  available 
wealth  of  the  world  is  to-day  controlled,  not  only 
by  nominal  Christendom,  but  largely  by  Christian 
ecclesiasticisms,  or  at  least  by  men  connected 
with  them.  A  missionary  conscience — the  Mace¬ 
donian  grace — will  not  allow  men  or  Churches  to 
get  rich  while  the  command  of  the  Lord  of  souls, 
the  Proprietor  of  the  universe,  “  Go  disciple  the 
nations,”  is  yet  unobeyed. 

2.  The  giving  of  the  Church  of  to-day  for  so- 
called  Church  purposes,  meager  as  it  is,  is  largely 
prompted  b}^  motives  utterly  foreign  to  a  mission¬ 
ary  conscience.  I  have  no  reply  to  make  here  to 
anything  that  may  be  said  or  can  be  said  in  ex¬ 
cuse  for,  or  justification  of,  the  lavish  investment 
of  money  in  fine  houses,  costly  furnishings,  artis¬ 
tic  displays,  gilt-edged  salaries  for  star  preachers, 
etc.  But  I  will  say  that  a  missionary  conscience 
will  not  let  a  man,  nor  a  congregation  of  men, 
spend  ninety-seven  and  one-half  per  cent  of  the 
Lord’s  money  upon  themselves,  even  in  the  name 
of  religion,  and  less  than  two  and  one-half  per 
cent  in  doing  the  one  thing  for  which  he  saved 
them,  called  them  into  the  fellowship  of  his  saints, 
and  constituted  them  a  Church. 

3.  The  Church  of  to-day  is  on  the  best  of  terms 
with  the  world.  She  knows  little  or  nothing  of 
the  experience,  ”  Blessed  are  ye  when  men  shall 
revile  you,  and  persecute  you,  and  shall  say  all 
manner  of  evil  against  you  falsely  for  my  sake.” 
More  than  this,  and  worse  than  this,  she  is  anx¬ 
iously  studying  ways  and  means  to  make  herself 


u-^nd  How  to  Supply  Its  Lack.  9 

more  popular;  and,  worst  of  all,  many  of  those 
ways  and  means  are  calculated,  if  not  intended, 
rather  to  please  and  entertain  men  than  to  save 
them  from  sin.  Some  of  our  weekly  advertise¬ 
ments  of  Church  services  would  better  adorn  the 
billboard  of  an  opera  house.  A  missionary  con¬ 
science  knows  nothing,  and  employs  nothing,  as 
an  attraction  for  men,  except  Christ  and  him  cru¬ 
cified.  It  has  no  use  for  unsaved  men  in  the  con¬ 
gregations  of  the  saints  except  to  save  and  sanc¬ 
tify  them.  It  is  not  dependent  upon  the  world’s 
methods  or  the  devil’s  methods  either  to  congre¬ 
gate  men  or  to  manipulate  them. 

4.  The  Church  of  to-day  is  at  ease.  She  is  sat¬ 
isfied  with  her  achievements  and  condition.  She 
has  little  trouble  in  excusing,  if  not  justifying, 
her  failures,  and  spends  much  time  and  labor  in 
congratulating  herself  on  even  seeming  successes. 
A  missionary  conscience  is  satisfied  with  nothing 
less,  in  pulpit  and  pew,  than  a  vital  sympathy 
with  its  divine  Head,  who,  just  before  his  final 
agony,  with  his  entirety  of  thought  merged  in 
the  contemplation  of  the  decease  which  he  was  to 
accomplish  at  Jerusalem,  said:  “How  am  I  strait¬ 
ened  till  it  be  accomplished  !  ”  He  was  straitened 
till  sacrifice  for  sin  was  complete.  A  missionary 
conscience  demands  that  the  Church  be  straitened 
till  the  world  be  drawn  to  him — “  till  he  see  the 
travail  of  his  soul  and  be  satisfied.” 

5.  The  Church  of  to-day  toadies  to  the  world’s 
foolish  fancies  and  sinful  practices.  Extrava¬ 
gance  in  dress,  theater  going,  card  parties,  parlor 
dances,  and  other  society  fads  abundantly  illus- 


lO 


A  Missionary  Conscienccy 


trate  and  afifirm  what  I  mean,  A  missionary  con¬ 
science  says :  “  Love  not  the  world,  neither  the 
things  that  are  in  the  world.  If  any  man  love  the 
world,  the  love  of  the  Father  is  not  in  him.  For 
all  that  is  in  the  world,  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  and 
the  lust  of  the  e3'es,  and  the  pride  of  life,  is  not 
of  the  Father,  but  is  of  the  world.  And  the  world 
passeth  away,  and  the  lust  thereof ;  but  he  that 
doeth  the  will  of  God  abideth  forever.” 

6.  The  Church  of  to-day  is  spiritually  incoher¬ 
ent,  and  practically  nonco-operative  as  to  its  parts. 
We  hear  a  great  deal,  to  be  sure,  about  denomina¬ 
tions  of  Christians  getting  closer  together ;  and. 
in  our  seasons  of  gush,  we  are  accustomed  to- 
make  much  ado  over  it.  But  the  truth  is  that  our  I 
unnecessary  and  selfish  divisions  are  an  offense 
to  the  Master,  an  in.sult  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  a 
source  of  sore  and  cruel  disappointment  to  the 
world.  I  could  stand  here  and  read  page  after 
page  of  evidence  on  this  point,  but  one  fact, 
which  will  bring  the  matter  directly  home  to  us. 
must  suffice :  The  Evangelical  Alliance  of  the 
world  has  for  years  prepared  a  programme,  and 
invited — yes,  begged — Christians  of  all  nations 
and  Churches  to  observe  the  first  two  Sabbaths  of 
January  and  the  intervening  week  as  a  season  of 
united  prayer.  Faithful  compliance  with  this  re¬ 
quest  has  many  times  and  in  many  places  wit¬ 
nessed  wonderful  displays  of  divine  power,  and 
wonderful  quickening  to  the  Churches.  This 
year,  however,  through  forgetfulness  or  careless¬ 
ness,  or  want  of  faith  in  Christian  co-operation  at 
a  throne  of  grace,  or  some  other  reason  of  equal  i 


And  How  to  Supply  Its  Lack. 


II 


importance  and  force,  the  Southern  Methodist 
Churches  of  Nashville — to  say  nothing  of  others 
— declined  to  hear  any  part  in  this  world-wide 
week  of  worship.  If  we  have  gotten,  or  are  to 
get,  any  good  out  of  it,  it  must  come  in  answer  to 
the  ])rayers  of  others.  A  missionary  conscience 
would  suggest  and  constrain  that,  while  denomi¬ 
national  lines  which  rest  on  principle  are  to  he 
maintained,  nevertheless,  in  prayer  and  faith  and 
holy  living,  we  are  on  all  possible  occasions  to 
provoke  one  another  to  good  works. 

I  pass  to  another  question,  viz  : 

IV.  How  is  This  Lack  of  Missionary  Conscience  in 
the  Church  to  Be  Accounted  For  ? 

Primarily  it  has  come  about  as  the  result  of 
a  threefold  and  inexcusable  failure :  ( i )  A  fail¬ 
ure  to  recognize  and  realize  the  authority  and 
fearful  import  of  Christ’s  command,  “  Go  ye 
into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  gospel  to 
every  creature;”  (2)  a  failure  to  appreciate 
the  terrible  condition  of  the  world  without 
the  gospel ;  and  ( 3 )  a  failure  to  apprehend 
the  truth  that  an  honest  effort  to  obey  the 
command,  and  to  minister  to  the  world’s  needs, 
suspends  the  very  life  of  the  Church.  Because  of 
the  first  failure,  preachers  of  the  gospel  have  come 
to  distinguish  between  a  call  to  preach  and  a  call 
to  be  a  missionary.  Even  Methodist  preachers — 
sons  of  him  who  said,  “The  world  is  my  parish,’’ 
himself  the  servant  of  that  greater  One  who  said, 

‘  ‘  The  field  is  the  world  ’  ’ — have  come  to  receive 
their  call  and  read  their  commission  with  very  dis¬ 
tinct  reservations  as  to  where  and  under  what  con- 


12 


A  Missionary  Conscience, 


ditions  they  will  serve.  Because  of  the  second 
failure  the  Church  has  been  waiting  for  political 
ambition,  commercial  greed,  enterprising  curiosity, 
or  some  other  secular  force  to  pioneer  the  way  and 
open  the  gates  of  access  to  heathen  nations.  She 
was  not  ashamed  to  enter  India  through  the  door 
opened  by  the  rapacity,  extortion,  and  cruelty 
of  the  East  India  Company,  nor  to  accept  the  di¬ 
abolism  of  the  opium  war  as  a  means  of  entrance 
to  China.  She  followed  the  warships  of  Commo¬ 
dore  Perry  into  Japan,  and  to-day  makes  more  in¬ 
terested  study  of  the  movements  of  the  ‘  ‘  Powers  ’  ’ 
than  of  the  command  of  Him  who  has  all  power  in 
heaven  and  earth,  or  of  the  needs  of  those  who  sit 
in  darkness,  dwelling  in  the  region  and  shadow  of 
death.  Because  of  the  third  failure,  the  Church  in 
many  instances,  while  imagining  herself  to  be  in 
need  of  nothing,  is,  in  the  esteem  of  the  Master, 
poor,  blind,  and  naked,  having  a  name  to  live 
while  she  is  dead. 

V,  How  Is  This  Lack  of  Missionary  Conscience  to 
Be  Supplied  ? 

I  answer  briefly  ;  First,  by  seeking  for  ourselves 
and  our  people  a  profounder  realization  of  what 
the  missionary  movement,  which  is  Christianity  in 
earnest  and  in  action,  means.  We  need  to  know 
and  feel  that  it  is  nothing  less  than  the  earnest  of 
the  fulfillment  of  the  Father’s  promise  to  the  Son, 
“  I  will  give  thee  the  heathen  for  thine  inheritance, 
and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  for  thy  pos¬ 
session  ;  ”  that  it  is  the  blood-sealed  pledge  of  the 
Son  that  this  gospel  of  the  kingdom  shall  be 
preached  throughout  the  world,  “for  a  witness  to 


And  Hozv  to  Supply  Its  Lack.  13 

the  nations  ;  ”  that  it  is,  moreover,  the  best  effort 
of  the  best  men,  acting  under  the  best  motives, 
and  in  the  use  of  the  best  means  to  answer  the 
prayer,  ‘  ‘  Thy  kingdom  come  ;  ”  to  usher  in  the 
day  of  our  God  when  every  knee  shall  bow  to 
Christ,  and  every  tongue  shall  confess  that  he  is 
Lord  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father  ;  when  the 
kingdoms  of  this  world  shall  be  the  kingdom  of 
our  Lord  and  his  Christ  ;  lastly,  that  it  is  the 
world’s  only  hope  of  physical,  mental,  social,  po¬ 
litical,  and  religious  regeneration  and  salvation, 
since  whom  the  Son  makes  free,  they  and  they 
only,  are  free  indeed.  What  Christianity  has  done 
for  one  man — say  Saul  of  Tarsus  ;  what  it  has  done 
for  one  community — say  the  cannibals  of  the  He¬ 
brides — it  can  do  for  the  world — it  intends  to  do 
for  the  world. 

We  will  prepare  ourselves  for  a  missionar}^  con¬ 
science  in  the  second  place :  By  forming  and  devel¬ 
oping  a  broader,  fuller  conception  of  the  infinite 
power  and  boundless  resources  that  justify  and 
guarantee  the  success  of  missions.  He  who  or¬ 
dained  them  said  :  ‘  ‘All  power  in  heaven  and  in 
earth  is  given  into  my  hands,”  and  “  Lo,  I  am 
with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.” 
To  discard  missions  is  to  deny  Christ ;  to  doubt 
their  success  is  to  belie  his  Word,  and  to  despair  of 
the  world’s  redemption. 

We  will  contribute  to  the  conditions  in  the  third 
place :  By  seeking  for  ourselves  and  inculcating 
among  our  people  a  clearer  conception,  a  deeper 
conviction,  a  more  sensitive  consciousness  of  what 
it  takes  to  constitute  a  soldier  of  that  army  that  is 


14 


A  Alissionary  Coiiscience, 


to  take  the  world  for  Christ — a  laborer  in  that  vine¬ 
yard  that  is  to  yield  a  soul  harvest  for  eternity. 

A  faith  that  saves  from  all  sin ;  promises  that 
consciously  enrich  to  everlasting  life ;  escape  from 
the  corruption  that  is  in  the  world  through  lust ; 
being  a  partaker  of  the  divine  nature,  constitute 
the  furnishment  which  God  vouchsafes  to  every 
man  who  would  be  a  soldier  of  the  cross.  To  un¬ 
dertake  to  be  such  a  soldier  without  it,  is  to  court 
defeat  in  every  contest  with  the  world,  the  flesh, 
and  the  devil.  To  profess  to  be  such  a  soldier 
without  it,  is  to  practice  the  boldest  presumption. 
To  maintain  one’s  character  as  such  a  soldier,  he 
must  add  daily  to  what  God  has  wrought  in  him — 
courage,  knowledge,  temperance,  patience,  godli¬ 
ness,  brotherly  kindness,  and  love.  “For  if  these 
things  be  in  him  and  abound,  they  make  or  con¬ 
strain  him  that  he  be  neither  idle  nor  unfruitful  in 
his  acknowledgement  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.’’ 
“  But  if  he  lacks  these  things  he  is  blind,  and  can 
not  see  afar  off,  and  has  forgotten  that  he  was 
purged  from  his  old  sins.” 

As  a  final  condition  for  a  missionary  conscience 
there  must  be  an  abiding  indwelling  of  the  Holy 
Spirit. 

To  his  disciples,  unregenerate  and  unspiritual, 
though  taught  by  him  in  person  for  three  years, 
the  Master  said  ‘  ‘  that  they  should  tell  no  man 
that  he  was  Jesus  Christ.”  To  those  same  disci¬ 
ples,  converted  and  Spirit-filled,  he  said:  “Ye 
shall  be  witnesses  unto  me  in  Jerusalem,  and  in 
Judea,  and  in  Samaria,  and  unto  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth.”  To  be  ignorant  of  the  status 


And  Hozv  to  Supply  Its  Lack.  15 

of  missions  in  the  world’s  economy,  is  to  read  his¬ 
tory  without  a  philosophy — to  study  the  signs  of 
of  the  times  without  a  key  of  interpretation.  To 
be  at  fault  in  regard  to  ChrivSt’s  power  and  resources 
for  the  world’s  conquest,  is  to  be  at  the  mercy  of 
the  earth’s  petty  schemes  and  Satan’s  demoralizing 
devices.  To  profess  to  be  Christians  without  hav¬ 
ing  the  nature  and  spirit  of  Christ,  is  to  play  the 
part  of  mere  camp  followers,  mere  hangers-on. 
To  be  without  the  Holy  Spirit  in  this  campaign,  in 
which  everything  is  at  stake,  is  to  go  to  war  with¬ 
out  a  leader,  without  a  guide,  without  a  plan, 
without  a  purpose,  without  an  inspiration. 

Without  the  Holy  Spirit  a  misvsionary  conscience 
is  an  impossibility.  With  the  Holy  Spirit  it  is  a 
necessity.  In  short,  a  missionary  conscience  is  the 
echo  in  us  of  the  voice  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 


“THE  FIELD  IS  THE  WORLD.” 


CHESE  words  furnish  in  part  the  Master’s  own 
exposition  of  his  parable  of  the  tares.  They 
are  eminently  suggestive  in  the  presence  of  every 
honest  effort  to  evangelize  the  nations.  No  vio¬ 
lence  is  done  either  to  the  structure  of  the  sentence 
or  to  the  divine  teaching  if  we  transpose  the  words 
so  as  to  read  :  “  The  world  is  the  field.” 

Indeed,  the  meaning  seems  to  be  that  this  world 
in  its  entirety  of  mind  and  matter,  as  distinguished 
from  all  other  worlds,  is,  in  a  peculiar  sense,  God’s 
field — the  arena  where  he  purposed  from  the  be¬ 
ginning  to  wonderfully  display  his  power  and  his 
wisdom  and  his  grace ;  the  domain  on  which  he 
has,  through  the  ages,  lavished  the  revenues  of  his 
universe ;  the  favored  realm  to  express  his  full  es¬ 
timate  of  which  he  spared  not  even  his  own  Son. 
But  this  unusual  manifestation  of  divine  interest 
and  love  has  been  the  provocation  of  a  correspond¬ 
ing  manifestation  of  Satanic  interest  and  hate. 
Hence  the  old  serpent,  who  first  made  rebellion  in 
heaven,  who  was  banished  to  the  hell  his  own  re¬ 
bellion  had  made,  has  seemingly  massed  his  all  of 
diabolical  resources  in  a  life-and-death  struggle  to 
occupy  this  same  field.  Surely  nowhere  else  do 
God’s  love  and  Satan’s  malice  find  at  once  such  a 
theater;  nowhere  else  are  heaven’s  gracious  con¬ 
descension  and  hell’s  vaulting  ambition  so  strange¬ 
ly  and  persistently  matched. 

Man,  made  to  be  God’s  viceregent  in  this  field, 

( 


“  The  Field  Is  the  WorldT 


17 


having  betra3^d  his  trust  and  transferred  his  alle¬ 
giance  to  the  devil,  having  made  himself  at  once 
the  victim  of  his  own  lust  and  the  instrument  of 
his  own  ruin,  having  set  God  and  Satan,  heaven 
and  hell,  at  strife  over  himself  and  his  God-given 
estate,  has,  to  crown  all  his  other  evil  deeds,  gone 
deliberately  about  the  business  of  making  this 
scene  of  strife  the  field  of  his  own  vanity  and 
greed  and  ambition  and  insatiable  selfishness. 

Last,  and  chiefest  of  all,  Christ,  to  vindicate 
God’s  original  purpose,  reclaim  his  infinite  outlays, 
and  verify  his  countless  promises;  to  disappoint 
Satan’s  bold  usurpation  and  disprove  his  shameless 
boast  of  sovereignty  and  proprietorship;  to  redeem 
man  and  restore  his  forfeited  heritage,  has  made 
this  world  the  field  of  his  mediatorial  reign.  Here, 
by  revealing  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  by  destroying 
one  by  one  the  works  of  the  devil,  by  making  man 
a  new  creation,  and  developing  him  after  the  model 
of  his  own  perfect  manhood,  he  is  bringing  light 
out  of  the  chambers  of  darkness,  truth  out  of  the 
vagaries  of  error,  right  out  of  the  wreckage  of 
wrong,  and  life  out  of  the  tomb  of  death.  In 
short,  he  is  restoring  all  things.  His  authority  to 
enterprise  this  mighty  and  varied  scheme,  and  his 
ability  to  execute  it,  he  predicates  of  four  indispu¬ 
table  facts: 

1.  He  is  the  creator  and  owner  of  this  field,  and 
of  all  that  it  contains:  For  “  the  earth  is  the  Lord’s 
and  the  fullness  thereof:  the  world  and  they  that 
dwell  therein.  For  he  hath  founded  it  upon  the 
seas  and  established  it  upon  the  floods.” 

2.  As  the  eternal  Son  he  is  the  heir  of  all  these 


2 


i8 


“  The  Field  Is  the  JVorld." 


things:  “I  shall  give  thee  the  heathen  for  thine 
inheritance,  and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth 
for  thy  possession.”  “He  shall  have  dominion 
also  from  sea  to  sea,  and  from  the  river  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth.” 

3.  He  has  bought  the  entire  domain  with  his  own 
life:  “He  gave  himself  for  us:  .  .  .  and  when  he 
had  by  himself  purged  our  sins,  he  sat  down  at 
the  right  hand  of  the  Majesty  on  high.” 

4.  The  right  and  power  to  rule  are  both  now  in 
his  hands.  He  has  no  rival.  “For  he  (the  Fa¬ 
ther)  has  put  all  things  under  him.”  “All  power 
in  heaven  and  in  earth  is  given  into  my  hands.” 

‘  ‘  He  must  reign  until  he  has  put  all  enemies  under 
his  feet.  ’  ’  His  reign  has  not  been  relegated  to  the 
future  and  to  some  other  sphere.  It  is  here  and 
now.  It  is  eternally  right  and  imperatively  nec¬ 
essary  that  Christ  should  reign  in  this  world  and 
over  this  world  until  every  person  and  thing  is  sub¬ 
ject  to  him;  until  every  knee  bows  and  every 
tongue  confesses  that  he  is  Ford;  until  the  wolf 
shall  lie  down  with  the  lamb;  until  the  desert  shall 
bloom  like  a  rose,  because:  (a)  His  incarnation 
and  death  and  resurrection  have  vested  in  him  ab¬ 
solute  and  supreme  sovereignty  over  every  soul  of 
man.  He,  and  he  alone,  holds  in  his  hand  the 
personal  existence,  the  character,  the  relation¬ 
ships,  the  destiny  of  each.  This,  too,  wdthout  any 
let  or  compromise  of  human  freedom  or  human  re¬ 
sponsibility.  (d)  These  same  miraculous  achieve¬ 
ments  of  his  have  vested  in  him,  the  God-man, 
absolute  right  of  property  in  the  w'orld’s  untold 
material  wealth.  Men  are  his  bondslaves,  the  con- 


“  The  Field  Is  the  WorldT 


19 


tents  of  the  world  are  his  goods.  Men  are  here 
solely  because  he  procured  them  a  new  probation. 
They  are  good  men  or  bad  men  solely  as  they  do 
his  will  or  abuse  his  grace.  The  relations  they 
sustain  to  God  or  men  are  virtuous  or  vicious  as 
they  are  in  him  or  out  of  him.  The  destiny  that 
every  one  is  to  achieve  will  be  determined  solely 
by  the  submission  yielded  and  the  service  rendered 
to  him. 

Whatever  is,  or  can  be,  in  this  world,  exists  only 
to  be  his  appointment  on  his  sufference.  That 
which  is,  by  his  appointment,  must  stand  despite 
all  opposition;  that  which  exists  only  by  his  suf¬ 
ference  must  go  whenever  his  wisdom  and  will 
shall  so  determine.  There  is  but  one  immovable 
ground  of  right  in  this  world — that  is  his  immacu¬ 
late  nature.  There  is  but  one  infallible  rule  of  right 
— that  is  his  will.  There  is  but  one  unappealable 
code  of  morals — that  is  his  gospel.  There  is  but 
one  final  court  of  appeal  from  all  other  courts — 
that  is  his  judgment  bar.  To  be  right  concerning 
persons  or  principles  or  politics,  is  to  think  his 
thoughts;  to  be  good  is  to  imitate  his  example;  to 
be  safe  is  to  be  on  his  side  in  every  movement — 
public  or  private,  social  or  civil,  political  or  relig¬ 
ious.  Under  him  virtue  can  never  fail  of  its  full 
reward;  vice  can  never  escape  its  full  penalty. 
There  is  no  missing  or  evading  or  resisting  the  se¬ 
cret,  silent,  searching  forces  of  his  rule.  As  “all 
things  work  together  for  good  to  those  who  love 
God,”  so  all  things  work  together  for  ill  to  those 
who  love  him  not.  ‘  ‘  If  any  man  love  not  the 
Ivord  Jesus  Christ,  he  is  accursed.” 


20 


“  The  Field  Is  the  WorldT 


The  purposes  and  plans  of  Christ’s  reign  in  the 
world  are  neither  mysterious  nor  hidden.  While 
they  are  pre-eminently  conservative,  they  are  at  the 
same  time  uncompromisingly  radical.  Conserva¬ 
tive,  in  that  nothing  good  ever  did  or  ever  can  per¬ 
ish  or  suffer  loss;  radical,  in  that  no  evil  thing  can 
be  approved  or  finally  stand. 

Christ’s  reign  in  this  world  has  this  twofold  mis¬ 
sion  to  men,  and  to  all  institutions  of  whatever 
sort  under  men:  {a)  To  save  and  glorify  that  which 
is  worth  saving;  (b)  to  destroy  beyond  remedy 
that  which  is  incorrigibly  bad.  He  intends  to 
make  this  a  new  world — in  all  its  agencies  and  ele¬ 
ments,  in  all  its  forces  and  functions — wherein 
“judgment  shall  run  down  as  waters,  and  right¬ 
eousness  as  a  mighty  stream.’’  That  his  power 
and  grace  have  ever  been  able  to  make  one  man  a 
true  Christian,  one  home  a  miniature  heaven,  one 
community  an  Bden,  one  nation  whose  laws  reflect, 
however  feebly,  his  gospel  and  his  kingdom,  is  an 
all-sufiicient  pledge  of  what  he  has  in  store,  for  ev¬ 
ery  man,  for  every  family,  for  every  community, 
for  every  nation  that  will  meet  his  conditions. 

In  so  far  as  there  are  evidences  that  the  world  is 
moving  upward  in  its  individual  manhood,  in  its 
domestic  purity,  in  its  social  integrity,  in  its  com¬ 
mercial  probity,  in  its  political  honesty,  in  its  scien¬ 
tific  correctness,  in  its  philosophical  soundness,  in 
its  educational  thoroughness,  in  its  religious  spirit¬ 
uality,  Christ’s  reign  thus  far  has  furnished  them. 
In  so  far  as  there  are  recognized  forces  in  the  world 
to-day  whose  working  promise,  sooner  or  later,  the 
end  of  international  strife,  the  federation  of  gov- 


“  The  Field  Is  the  World! 


21 


ernments,  the  brotherhood  of  man,  Christ’s  reign 
thus  far  is  responsible  for  them ;  and  if  the  problem 
of  human  existence  is  ever  solved  ;  if  the  question, 
“  is  life  worth  living?  ”  is  ever  answered;  if  God’s 
dealing  with  the  race  is  ever  vindicated,  the  con¬ 
summation  of  Christ’s  reign  must  solve  the  prob¬ 
lem,  answer  the  question,  and  vindicate  God’s 
ways.  Otherwise  they  are  insoluble,  unanswera¬ 
ble,  inexplicable.  O  glorious  day  of  perfect,  uni¬ 
versal  restoration  !  Who  would  not  share  in  its  glory 
and  its  awards?  Who  would  not  hear  the  plaudit 
and  the  decree  that  shall  change  his  earthly  to  his 
heavenly  relationship  to  his  divine  Ivord :  ‘  ‘  Thou 
hast  been  faithful  over  a  few  things  (as  a  servant), 
I  will  make  thee  ruler  (joint  ruler  with  myself) 
over  many  things?”  “He  that  overcometh  shall 
sit  down  with  me  on  my  throne,  even  as  I  have 
overcome  and  am  set  down  wdth  my  Father  on  his 
throne.  ’  ’  Thank  God !  To  see  this  glory  and  to 
hear  this  plaudit  is  the  heirloom  of  every  redeemed 
son  and  daughter  of  Adam. 

The  sole  condition  of  realization  is  that  Christ 
reigns  in  us  personally,  and  through  us,  in  our 
consecration  and  sacrifice  and  service,  over  the 
greatest  possible  number  of  others.  In  that  day 
‘  ‘  they  that  be  wise  shall  shine  as  the  brightness  of 
the  firmament;  and  they  that  turn  many  to  right¬ 
eousness,  as  the  stars  forever  and  ever.” 

The  enterprise  pre-eminent  of  this  age  is  Chris¬ 
tian  missions.  It  guages  to-day  the  progress  of 
Christ’s  reign  in  the  earth.  The  consummation  of 
the  purpose  of  the  one,  to  give  the  gospel  to  every 
creature,  will  strike  the  first  note  in  that  triumphant 


22 


“  The  Field  Is  the  World! 


paeon  of  the  other:  “Hallelujah!  for  the  Lord  God 
Omnipotent  reigneth.” 

“Blessed  are  they  that  sow  beside  all  waters.” 
May  the  Holy  Spirit  show  us  the  wisdom  of  in¬ 
vesting  our  prayers,  our  faith,  our  consecrated  all, 
in  this  one,  only  infallibly  sure,  undertaking. 


“THY  KINGDOM  COME.” 


“  When  j’e  pray,  say,  .  .  .  Thy  kingdom  come.” 

(Luke  xi.  2.) 

TF  the  Bible  is  true  and  the  experience  and  testi¬ 
mony  of  godly  men  are  worth  anything,  then 
prayer  is  at  once  our  highest  privilege,  our  most 
imperative  duty,  our  surest  resort  for  all  needed 
good,  and  our  most  reliable  weapon  for  both  of¬ 
fensive  and  defensive  warfare  against  all  foes. 
With  it  the  least  is  equal  to  any  emergency;  with¬ 
out  it  the  greatest  is  nothing  and  can  do  nothing. 

Surely  that  which  promises  so  much,  and  which 
involves  so  much,  personally  and  relatively,  ought 
to  be  better  understood  than  it  is,  and  to  wield  a 
mightier  influence  in  the  affairs  of  men  than  it 
does.  It  is  wondrous  strange  that  prayer  is  so 
little  accounted  as  a  factor  in  the  world’s  happen¬ 
ings.  It  is  more  wondrous  strange  that  so  much 
that  is  called  prayer  so  evidently  fails  to  verify 
what  is  predicated  of  it  in  God’s  Word,  Why  do 
so  few  men  pray  ?  Why  have  the  best  of  us  so 
few  and  such  poor  returns  for  our  prayers  ?  Prayer 
is  so  simple,  so  natural,  so  self-suggestive,  so  self- 
consistent,  so  identified  with  every  real  interest, 
and  involved  in  every  right  relationship,  that  it 
seems  to  commend  itself  as  the  most  practical,  the 
most  reasonable,  the  most  desirable,  the  most 
hopeful,  the  most  infallible  exercise  known  to  men. 

That  true  prayer  should  fail  is  impossible.  The 
very  thought  is  inconceivable.  He  who  is  the 

(23) 


24 


'"Thy  Kingdom  Come." 


Truth,  who  also  has  all  power  in  heaven  and  earth, 
says:  “Whatsoever  ye  ask  in  prayer,  believing,  ye 
shall  receive.”  To  doubt  is  to  belie  all  truth,  to 
stultify  one’s  own  mind,  and  to  disqualif}^  himself 
for  the  exercise  of  prayer.  Evidently  there  is  in  the 
world  and  in  the  Church  a  widespread  misunder¬ 
standing  of  what  true  prayer  is,  a  sad  misconcep¬ 
tion  of  the  end  always  to  be  reached  in  this  act  of 
divine  worship,  whether  private  or  public.  We 
often  find  ourselves  praying  as  if  our  chief  busi¬ 
ness  were  to  inform  God  as  to  our  persons,  rela¬ 
tions,  and  wants ;  seeming  to  forget  that  he  knows 
us  and  our  wants  just  as  well  before  as  after  our 
gratuitous  information.  True  prayer  does  not 
assume  to  instruct  the  All-Wise.  Then,  again,  we 
pray  as  if  we  desired  and  expected  to  make  God 
willing  to  do  something  for  us  which  otherwise 
he  might  be  unwilling  to  do ;  utterly  oblivious 
that  our  Heavenly  Father,  having  given  his  Son 
for  us,  is  not  only  willing  and  anxious  to  give  us 
all  other  good,  but  does  actually  bestow  all  that 
we  will  allow"  him.  True  prayer  does  not  waste 
itself  upon  ears  that  need  to  be  w"on,  or  upon  a 
heart  that  needs  to  be  propitiated.  Oftener  than 
otherwise,  perhaps,  w"e  give  more  attention  to  the 
verbiage  than  to  the  spirit  of  our  prayers ;  failing 
to  grasp  the  truth  that  true  prayer  is  the  soul’s 
sincere  desire,  uttered  or  unexpressed ;  that  it 
may  be 


The  burden  of  a  sig’h, 

The  falling-  of  a  tear, 

The  upward  g-lancing-  of  an  e5"e, 
When  none  but  God  is  near. 


“  Thy  Kingdom  ConieT 


25 


Or,  it  may  be 

The  simplest  form  of  speech 
That  infant  lips  can  try ; 

The  sublimest  strains  that  reach 
The  Majesty  on  high. 

But  always,  everywhere,  it  is  the  soul’s  honest, 
earnest  struggle  to  tell  its  own  needs  and  to  se¬ 
cure  God’s  help.  True  prayer  never  frames  itself 
for  other  ears  than  God’s ;  its  wings  never  fold  them¬ 
selves  short  of  the  bosom  of  the  loving  All-Father. 

Moreover,  we  are  prone  to  excuse  our  shortcom¬ 
ings  in  prayer  on  the  ground  of  time  and  place 
and  circumstance.  These  really  have  nothing  to 
do  either  with  our  duty  to  pray  or  with  the  answers 
we  ought  to  receive.  The  duty  comes  out  in  w’ords 
like  these:  “Men  ought  always  to  pray;  I  would 
that  men  pray  everywhere  :  be  careful  for  nothing, 
but  in  everything  by  pra3Tr  .  .  .  let  your  re¬ 

quests  be  made  known  to  God.”  The  answers  are 
assured  in  words  just  as  easily*  understood  and 
just  as  indubitable :  “  Your  Father  who  seeth  in 
secret  shall  reward  you  openly :  ye  shall  receive  : 
ye  shall  find :  it  shall  be  opened  to  you :  it  shall 
be  done  unto  you  :  the  peace  of  God  .  .  .  shall 
keep  3"Our  heart  and  mind  through  Jesus  Christ.” 

Our  divine  Lord  has  secured  for  us  the  privilege 
of  prayer;  he  teaches  us  how  to  pray;  he  lays 
upon  us  the  command  to  pray;  and  then  he  an¬ 
swers  us  (or  rather  the  Father  answers  us  for  his 
sake),  because  in  prayer  we  put  ourselves  in  har¬ 
mony  with  his  will  as  it  concerns  us,  occupy  the 
place  in  the  divine  economy  made  for  us,  and  thus, 
being  no  longer  obstructionists,  we  become  a 


26 


“  Thy  Kingdom  ComeT 


part  of  God’s  machinery  for  saving  the  world. 

The  earth  life  of  the  Son  of  God,  being  a  pattern 
for  ours,  was  pre-eminently  one  of  prayer.  From 
its  standpoint  a  prayerless  life  is  an  anomaly,  a 
failure,  an  exaggerated  indignity.  He  not  only 
seeks  to  lead  us  out  of  the  selfishness,  the  secular- 
ity,  the  barrenness,  the  viciousness  of  such  a  life, 
but  would  further  save  us  from  ourselves  by  teach¬ 
ing  us  what  to  pray  for.  With  an  unerring  appre¬ 
hension  of  human  needs,  he  has  made  lavish  pro¬ 
vision  for  all,  nor  left  one  out  of  the  prayer  he  has 
taught  us  to  say.  If  we  would  never  pray  in  vain, 
let  us  make  the  Lord’s  Prayer  at  least  the  leaven 
out  of  which  shall  rise  all  our  petitions. 

Perhaps  the  most  comprehensive  of  these — in¬ 
deed,  the  one  that  seems  to  sustain  to  the  others 
the  relationship  of  genus  to  species — is  that  with 
which  this  paper  opens:  “Thy  kingdom  come.” 
It  does  appear  to  me  that  to  have  these  won¬ 
derfully  expressive  words  put  upon  our  lips  b}' 
their  divine  Author  as  our  inalienable  property ; 
to  have  our  minds  imbued  with  the  wealth  of 
thought  they  express  ;  to  have  our  hearts  inspired 
with  the  hopes  they  kindle ;  to  have  our  lives  ele¬ 
vated  to  the  spiritual  level  which  they  make  possi¬ 
ble,  is  to  receive  a  new  interpretation  of  the  mys¬ 
tery  of  being,  a  new  vindication  of  God’s  ways  in 
the  earth,  a  new  reason  for  being  and  doing  all 
that  redeemed  manhood  implies. 

Seeking  to  know  our  interest  in  these  words,  so 
fraught  with  universal  human  destiny,  let  us  try 
to  find  their  truest,  deepest  meaning,  their  high¬ 
est,  best  inspiration. 


“  Thy  Kingdom  ComeT 


27 


The  personal  reign  of  the  God-man,  which  is 
clearly  the  meaning  of  the  term  kingdom  as  used 
in  this  connection,  is  the  most  persistent  fact  of 
divine  revelation.  Promise,  symbol,  prophecy  are 
all  surcharged  with  it ;  and  everywhere  man’s 
noblest  work  here  is  held  to  be  that  of  a  coworker 
in  bringing  it  in  ;  while  reigning  with  him  is 
counted  to  be  man’s  highest  destiny  hereafter. 

Three  aspects  of  this  reign  are  made  prominent 
in  the  New  Testament  Scriptures,  and  for  each  of 
these  in  its  order  the  words  of  the  Master  teach 
us  to  pray.  These  aspects  are:  (i)  His  reign  in 
our  own  hearts  and  over  our  own  lives;  (2)  His 
reign  in  the  Church ;  (3)  His  reign  over  the  world. 

He  who  is  obedient  to  his  Master  prays  intelli¬ 
gently,  honestly,  in  faith,  “Thy  kingdom  come,” 
holds  as  his  first  thought,  cherishes  as  his  fondest 
desire,  seeks  as  highest  good  the  supreme  Kingship 
of  Jesus  over  himself.  Otherwise  his  words  are 
only  mockery,  and  they  but  parody  the  utterance 
of  his  divine  Lord.  It  is  nothing  short  of  folly  to 
expect,  it  is  little  short  of  blasphemy  to  ask  for, 
the  kingdom  elsewhere,  when  we  persistently  put 
it  away  from  ourselves. 

In  this  aspect  the  prayer  is  peculiarly  the  prop¬ 
erty  of  every  penitent  sinner.  It  contains  the 
very  essence  of  repentance,  faith,  and  surrender 
to  the  soul’s  only  rightful  Lord :  the  very  condi¬ 
tion  of  conversion,  consecration,  and  availability 
in  the  divine  service.  The  kingdom  in  us  is,  per¬ 
haps,  the  only  infallible  sign  that  we  are  in  the 
kingdom.  Did  not  the  Master  mean  this  when  he 
said,  “  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  ?  ”  And 


28 


“  Thy  Kingdom  Come." 


then  added  in  another  place,  “The  kingdom  of 
God  cometh  not  from  observation.  .  .  .  The 

kingdom  of  God  is  within  you.” 

A  truly  converted  soul,  a  truly  consecrated  life, 
of  itself  constitutes  a  kingdom  over  which  the 
King  of  kings  delights,  above  everything  else,  to 
rule.  “  Thus  sayeth  the  Tord,  the  heaven  is  my 
throne,  and  the  earth  is  my  footstool,  .  .  . 

but  to  this  man  will  I  look,  even  to  him  that  is 
poor  and  of  a  contrite  spirit  trembleth  at  my 
word.  If  a  man  love  me,  he  will  keep  my  words, 
and  my  Father  will  love  him,  and  we  will  come  to 
him  and  make  our  abode  with  him.”  The  nucleus 
of  Christ’s  kingdom  was  formed  when  the  first 
human  soul  submitted  to  his  easy  yoke  and  took 
up  the  light  burden  of  his  service. 

Then  by  the  coalition  of  such  soul  kingdoms, 
the  empire  of  the  Church  of  God  is  constituted, 
and  so  manifests  the  second  phase  of  the  media¬ 
torial  reign.  Christ  is  “  head  over  all  things  to 
the  Church,”  and  when  the  truly  saved  man,  in 
whom  and  over  whom  Jesus  reigns,  prays,  “  thy 
kingdom  come,”  his  faith  compasses  the  time 
when  the  actual  shall  become  the  ideal  Church  of 
God ;  when  his  prayer  shall  find  common  answer 
with  that  of  the  blessed  Saviour,  “That  they  may 
all  be  one ;  as  thou.  Father,  art  in  me,  and  I  in 
thee,  that  they  may  also  be  one  in  us ;  that  the 
world  may  believe  that  thou  hast  sent  me.” 

In  the  unfolding  of  this  kingdom  the  Church  is 
made  the  magazine  of  divine  power,  the  dispen¬ 
sary  of  divine  grace,  the  instrument  of  the  world’s 
evangelization;  and  her  prayer,  “Thy  kingdom 


“  Thy  Kingdom  ComeT 


29 


come,”  united,  ceaseless,  alone  makes  her  divine 
resources  sure,  and  keeps  her  human  sympathies 
warm.  For  her  encouragement  she  has  the  prom¬ 
ise  of  the  Father,  “I  shall  give  the  heathen  for 
thine  inheritance,  and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
earth  for  thy  possession ;  ”  the  proclamation  of 
the  Son,  “  Hereafter  ye  shall  see  the  Son  of  Man 
sitting  on  the  right  hand  of  power  and  coming  in 
the  clouds  of  heaven,”  and  the  assurance  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  “He  must  reign  till  he  hath  put  all 
enemies  under  his  feet.”  Heaven  and  earth  may 
pass  away,  but 

Jesus  shall  reign  where’er  the  sun 

Does  his  successive  journeys  run. 

For  nearly  two  thousand  years,  with  these  death- 
confirmed,  blood-sealed  promises  in  her  hand,  the 
Church  has  been  repeating  the  all-comprehensive 
formula,  “  Thy  kingdom  come ;  ”  now,  in  answer 
to  the  challenge,  “  What  of  the  night  ?  ”  the  watch¬ 
men  upon  the  wall  reply:  “Three-fourths  of  the 
earth’s  multiplied  millions  are  yet  in  the  darkness 
and  death  of  heathendom,  and  at  least  five-sixths 
of  the  other  fourth  are  practically  infidel,  being 
utterly  destitute  of  any  saving  knowledge  of 
God.”  The  response  is  startling.  Is  this,  then, 
the  legitimate  outcome  of  the  divine  plan  for  the 
“restitution  of  all  things?”  Has  that  plan  prov¬ 
en  a  failure  ?  Has  the  devil  and  his  human  ad¬ 
juncts  been  more  than  a  match  for  the  wisdom  and 
power  and  grace  of  God  in  Christ?  No!  a  thou¬ 
sand  times  no !  God’s  plan  never  miscarries, 
never  fails,  never  retraces  its  steps  in  the  presence 


30  “  Thy  Kingdom  ConieT 

of  a  foe.  Its  institution  in  the  world  being  sole¬ 
ly  in  man’s  interest,  its  progress  has  been  and 
must  continue  to  be  in  the  direct  ratio  of  man’s 
consent  to  be  saved  himself  and  to  be  used  in  the 
salvation  of  others.  A  compulsory  salvation  would 
be  a  contradiction  in  terms;  a  saved  man  who 
does  nothing  to  save  somebody  else  simply  breaks 
the  circuit  of  divine  grace  and  plays  the  part  of  a 
heedless  ground  wire. 

The  world  is  where  it  is  to-day,  spiritually,  be¬ 
cause  the  Church  has  not  really  asked  for  any¬ 
thing  better ;  it  has  not  really  believed  that  any¬ 
thing  better  was  practicable  or  possible ;  has  not 
really  made  it  her  sole  business  to  make  it  better. 
That 'this  is  the  secret  of  the  whole  matter  the 
Word  of  God  attests  :  “Ye  shall  ask  what  ye  will, 
and  it  shall  be  done  unto  you;  ”  “  If  ye  have  faith 
as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  .  .  .  nothing  shall 

be  impossible  to  you;’’  “If  these  things  be  in 
you  and  abound,  they  shall  make  you  that  you  be 
neither  idle  nor  unfruitful  in  the  acknowledgement 
of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.’’ 

The  threefold  sin  of  the  Church— the  triple¬ 
headed  nightmare  of  the  world — is  prayerless- 
ness,  faithlessness,  covetousness.  She  does  not  pray 
like  Jesus,  her  Head,  prayed,  or  like  he  taught  her 
to  pray.  She  does  not  realize  that  her  sufficiency 
is  of  God,  and  that  it  hangs  upon  the  asking. 
Whole  volumes  of  self-laudation  and  self-gratula- 
tion  occupy  the  waste  places  that  lack  of  com¬ 
munion  with  God  has  made;  but  these  are  alien, 
and  cannot  be  utilized  in  bringing  in  the  king¬ 
dom.  When  the  Church  learns  to  pray  for  the 


‘■'Thy  Kingdom  Come." 


31 


world  like  John  Knox  prayed  for  Scotland,  the 
world  will  be  at  her  feet,  or  rather  at  the  feet  of 
her  Lord. 

But  little  as  the  Church  prays,  she  does  not  be¬ 
lieve  the  few  things  she  says,  even  when  she  uses 
the  words  taught  her  by  the  Master.  I  do  not 
speak  of  all.  God  knoweth  his  own.  I  mean  the 
body  of  professed  Christians  ;  or,  to  be  more  di¬ 
rect,  the  body  of  our  own  Methodism.  What  a 
consummate  farce,  so  far  as  the  great  mass  of  our 
people  are  concerned,  is  the  stated  repetition  "of 
the  Lord’s  Prayer  in  our  churches.  Most  of  them 
indeed  never  join  in  the  repetition ;  they  neither 
know,  believe,  nor  care  for  its  contents ;  while 
most  of  the  others  have  very  imperfect,  very  nar¬ 
row  conceptions  of  the  meaning  of  the  words 
they  utter,  and  very  feeble,  very  ill-defined  faith 
in  any  definite  answer  to  them.  This  is  the  rea¬ 
son  why  “  Thy  kingdom  come  ”  has  not  long  since 
shaken  this  old  world  from  center  to  circumfer¬ 
ence.  Millions  of  lips,  on  which  ought  to  have 
been  the  power  of  God,  have  been  dumb  to  its 
power  of  utterance,  while  thousands  of  other  lips, 
in  its  utterance,  have  failed  to  represent  hearts 
that  ought  to  have  been  aflame  with  love  and  in¬ 
vincible  in  faith. 

Moreover,  where  the  prayer  has  been  made  with 
some  degree  of  regularity  and  fervor,  and  where 
a  nebulous  kind  of  faith  that  sometime  and  some¬ 
how  it  would  be  answered,  still  our  hoarded  re¬ 
sources  of  personal  power  and  material  wealth 
have  been  turned  into  other  channels,  and  devoted 
to  other  interests.  How  few  of  our  people  yet 


32 


“  Thy  Kingdom  Come." 


know  that  it  is  of  the  very  essence  of  prayer  that  he 
who  prays  devotes  himself  and  his  all,  in  God’s 
hands,  to  the  end  to  which  his  prayer  looks.  It 
is  the  crucial  test  of  a  Christian’s  honesty  that  he 
is  willing  to  stake  everything  on  the  Word  of  his  • 
divine  Lord. 

We  stand  convicted  even  to-day  by  the  same 
message  that  smote  last  on  Jewish  ears  before  the 
Voice  came  :  “  Ye  have  robbed  me.”  Thank  God 
it  is  still  optional  with  us  to  redeem  the  titne. 
Thus  sayeth  the  Lord:  “Bring  ye  all  the  tithes 
into  the  storehouse,  that  there  may  be  meat  in 
mine  house,  and  prove  me  now  herewith,  .  .  . 

if  I  will  not  open  you  the  windows  of  heaven,  and 
pour  you  out  such  a  blessing  that  there  shall  not 
be  room  enough  to  receive  it.” 

Brethren,  we  can  bring  Christ’s  kingdom  much 
nearer  to  ourselves  and  much  nearer  its  final  goal 
by  raising  the  average  of  our  foreign  contribu¬ 
tion  to  fifty  cents  per  member  this  year. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  MISSIONS. 


During  this  so-called  renascent  century  of  mis¬ 
sions  the  Church  has  spent  much  time  and 
exhausted  much  treasure  of  mind  and  money  in 
discussing  and  experimenting  with  plans  and  meth¬ 
ods.  The  most  hopeful  sign  of  the  closing  period 
is  that  we  are  coming  to  learn  that  the  plan  for 
propagating  the  gospel  is  as  much  a  matter  of  di¬ 
vine  revelation  as  the  gospel  itself ;  that  the  Church 
can  as  easily  originate  a  saving  message  as  she  can 
devise  a  successful  propaganda  (Rome  deems  her- 
vSelf  capable  of  both);  that  while  the  official  work 
of  our  Lord  JCvSus  Christ  has  created,  stamped  with 
authority  and  sealed  with  his  own  blood  the  one, 
at  the  same  time  his  personal  life  has  furnished 
with  equal  distinctness  and  authority  the  other ; 
that  as  the  gospel  in  every  age  and  among  every 
people  has  proved  itself  “the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation”  just  in  proportion  as  it  has  been  kept 
pure — nothing  added  to  it,  nothing  taken  from  it — 
so  its  propagation  has  been  a  success  just  as  the 
same  sacred  deference  has  been  paid  to  Christ’s  di¬ 
vinely  recorded  example.  ‘  ‘  For,  ’  ’  says  he,  ‘  ‘  I  have 
given  you  an  example;”  and  “If  ye  know  these 
things,  happy  are  ye  if  ye  do  them.” 

I  said  that  we  are  coming  to  learn  these  things. 
Slowly,  indeed;  ah,  so  slowly!  But  we  are  learn¬ 
ing  them.  And,  after  the  spirit  of  scientific  experi¬ 
mentation,  so  peculiar  to  the  age  and  so  boastful  of 
its  achievements,  has  spent  itself;  after  the  bubbles 
3  (33) 


34 


The  Problem  of  Missions. 


of  a  cheap  and  pestiferous  optimism  have  all  burst, 
we  shall  come  back  to  simple  faith  in  him  who 
said:  “All  power  in  heaven  and  in  earth  is  given 
into  my  hands;  ”  back  to  simple  obedience  to  him 
who  said:  “Follow  me.”  Christ’s  formula  for 
solving  the  problem  of  missions  is  stated  in  these 
words:  “And  Jesus  went  about  all  the  cities  and 
villages,  teaching  in  their  synagogues,  .  .  .  and 

healing  all  manner  of  sickness  and  all  manner  of 
disease  among  the  people.”  (Matt.  ix.  35.) 

What  Judea  and  Galilee  were  to  the  personal 
ministry  of  Christ,  the  world  is  to  the  ministry  of 
the  Church.  If  this  is  not  so,  then  the  Church  has 
no  divine  ministry  in  the  world,  and  it  matters 
little  what  is  said  along  the  line  of  things  under 
consideration.  If  it  is  so,  then  what  an  exhaustless 
mine  of  priceless  thought  is  uncovered !  what  an 
armory  of  untried,  or  only  partially  tried,  weapons 
is  opened  by  this  short  passage  ! 

Jesus  did  four  things:  («)  He  went  where  the 
thronging  multitude,  without  a  shepherd,  sorely 
needed  his  presence  and  his  blessing;  (<5*)  he 
preached.,  that  they  might  know  that  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  and  hope  was  at  hand;  (r)  he  taught, 
that  they  might  know  how  to  enter  that  kingdom, 
the  kingdom  having  entered  them;  [d)  he  heated 
sickness  and  disease,  that  all  might  have  proof  and 
appreciation  of  the  divine  character  of  his  person, 
his  preaching,  and  his  teaching. 

There  are,  then,  just  four  things  for  the  Church 
to  do  in  following  her  divine  Lord,  in  executing 
her  world- wide  commission.  They  are  the  same 
four  things  that  He  did  ;  and  as  long  as  she  keeps 


The  Problem  of  Missions. 


35 


lierself  unentangled  with  any  foreign  alliance,  she 
is  assured  of  the  same  authority,  the  same  powder, 
and  the  same  success  as  were  always  His.  He  says: 
“Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you.  He  that  believeth 
on  me  ( that  cuts  off  all  alliance  with  Self,  Caesar, 
or  Mammon),  the  works  that  I  do  shall  he  do  also; 
and  greater  works  than  these  shall  he  do;  because 
I  go  unto  the  Father.”  (John  xiv.  12.) 

The  Church  has  always  been  slow  to  believe  all 
that  Jesus  said  of  himself  and  of  his  kingdom,  just 
as  his  immediate  disciples  were  slow  to  believe  all 
that  the  prophets  had  spoken  of  him;  and  she  has 
been  slower  to  obey  than  to  believe.  In  the  matter 
of  ‘  ‘  going  ’  ’  she  has  had  trouble  from  the  begin¬ 
ning,  and  her  movements  have  often  been  eccentric. 
The  centripetal  force  of  Judaism  so  dominated 
Jerusalem,  even  after  Pentecost,  that  Antioch  took 
her  crown;  and  Paul  superseded,  in  apostolic  labor, 
those  who  had  known  Christ  after  the  flesh,  had 
heard  the  commission,  and  had  seen  Pentecost. 
The  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  grown  strong 
despite  three  centuries  of  persecution,  exchanged 
Christ  for  Caesar  and  became  the  world-wide  prop¬ 
agandist  of  a  miserable  mixture  of  heathenism, 
Judaism,  and  Christianity.  When  Protestantism 
came  upon  the  stage  she  seemed  to  think  she  had 
enough  to  do  to  maintain  her  integrity  at  home; 
and  with  sporadic  and  infrequent  exceptions,  little 
going  into  the  ‘  ‘  regions  beyond  ’  ’  was  done  till  the 
nineteenth  century  was  well  advanced.  Even  now, 
much  of  her  going  is  tentative ;  much  of  her  occu¬ 
pancy  is  precarious;  much  of  her  work  is  experi¬ 
mental.  As  to  what  is  meant  in  this  statement. 


36  The  Problem  of  Missions. 

and  avS  a  vindication  of  its  truth,  no  better  illustra¬ 
tion  can  be  found  than  China. 

Our  Protestant  missionaries  ( to  say  nothing  of 
those  of  Rome  and  Russia)  have  gone  to  China 
under  express  provision  of  treaties  forced  upon 
that  nation  by  the  so-called  Christian  nations. 
They  have  gone  retaining  their  citizenship  under 
the  governments  of  these  nations,  and  with  the  dis¬ 
tinct  understanding  that  for  their  conduct  they  are 
amenable,  not  to  the  Chinese,  but  to  home  courts. 
They  have  gone  committed  to  the  “  Westernizing  ’  ^ 
of  the  civilization  of  China.  They  have  gone  thus 
expressing  more  confidence  in  Caesar  than  in  Christ, 
more  faith  in  civilization  than  in  Christianity. 
Thus  going,  their  occupancy  of  the  country  is  not 
in  the  narne  of  him  who  is  China’s  King  as  he  is 
their  King,  but  in  the  name  of  the  powers  by  whose 
fiat  they  entered.  Their  safety  is  predicated,  not 
of  the  promises,  the  infallible  promises  of  Jesus 
Christ,  but  of  the  diplomatic  skill  and  warlike 
power  of  their  respective  governments;  so,  it  seems 
to  me,  our  entrance  would  impress  the  Chinese, 
and  so  it  has  impressed  them. 

It  is  a  fact  that  few,  if  any,  missionaries  have 
suffered  in  China  purely  for  Christ’s  sake.  Rather 
they  have  suffered  because  of  real  or  supposed  alli¬ 
ance  with  powers  whose  known  business  is  whole¬ 
sale  robbery,  and  who  patronize  Christianity  only 
as  a  means  of  aggrandizing  themselves.  It  must 
be  apparent  that  Christian  work  done  under  such 
auspices  must  be  experimental,  and  is  in  danger  of 
sharing  the  fate  of  Nestorianisni  and  early  Roman¬ 
ism  in  the  same  field.  It  is  earnestly  believed  that 


The  Problem  of  Missions. 


37 


the  time  has  come  when  this  whole  thing  vshould 
be  changed;  that,  pursuant  of  the  present  fearful 
cataclysm,  no  matter  how  it  terminates  politically, 
the  Church  ought  to  get  right  with  Christ  and 
with  China. 

Let  State  Churches  do  as  they  may  or  can,  but 
let  true  Protestantism  resolve  at  least  these  things: 
(rt)  Not  to  enter  or  occupy  any  mission  field  on 
terms  stipulated  by  any  civil  government  or  gov¬ 
ernments;  if')  to  send  no  missionary  to  any  field 
who  insists  on  retaining  citizenship  at  home,  and 
who  expects  at  the  hands  of  his  government  pro¬ 
tection  against  the  government  under  whose  juris¬ 
diction  he  labors;  (<:)  to  inform  all  people  to  whom 
we  go  that  we  represent  no  government  but  that 
of  Christ,  no  civilization  but  that  of  pure  Christiani¬ 
ty,  no  enterprise  but  the  saving  of  their  souls,  no 
system  of  learning  but  that  which  makes  wise  unto 
salvation;  (d)  to  let  our  religion  commend  our  civ¬ 
ilization,  and  not  our  civilization  our  religion;  {e)  in 
short,  to  return  to  simple  obedience  to  our  Lord, 
going  where  he  has  commanded,  where  he  opens  up 
the  way;  but  going  in  such  Christian  independence 
that  our  presence  cannot,  in  any  one’s  esteem,  justly 
involve  us  in  complications  alien  to  his  kingdom. 

So  Paul  went  to  Asia  Minor,  Macedonia,  to 
Greece,  even  to  Rome ;  so  Patrick  went  to  Ire¬ 
land  ;  so  Columbanus  and  his  fellow  Irishmen 
went  to  the  tribes  of  Germany ;  so  Schwartz  went 
to  India;  so  Eliot  and  Brainerd  went  to  the  North 
American  Indians ;  so  Livingstone  and  Moffat 
went  to  darkest  Africa ;  so  Paton  went  to  the 
South  Sea  Islands.  The  list  might  be  lengthened 


38  The  Problem  of  ilfissions. 

indefinitely,  but  these  will  suffice  to  show  that 
manner  of  going  which  never  fails,  and  never 
brings  reproach  upon  the  worthy  name  of  our 
Head.  This  appeal  cannot  be  set  aside  on  the 
plea  that  it  is  visionary,  and  that  the  plan  pro¬ 
posed  is  inexpedient,  impracticable.  This  plea 
will  only  hold  when  it  can  be  shown  that  Christ 
himself  was  a  visionary ;  that  his  religion  is  an 
illusion,  and  his  kingdom  a  myth.  Just  as  sure 
as  Christ  reigns  ;  just  as  sure  as  his  Word  is  invi¬ 
olable  ;  just  as  sure  as  his  Church  is  under  exclu¬ 
sive  commission  to  evangelize  the  world;  just 
as  sure  as  every  past  failure  is  traceable  to  defec¬ 
tion  from  Christ,  and  alliance  with  the  world,  the 
flesh,  and  the  devil;  just  that  sure,  in  order  to  the 
conquest  of  China  and  the  world,  must  the  Church 
return  to  her  “  first  love”  and  to  the  “  old  paths.” 

With  such  an  entrance  and  such  an  occupancy, 
preaching  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom  becomes  the 
primary,  the  leading  function  of  the  Church. 
This  needs  no  discussion.  On  it  all  the  votaries 
of  missions  are  agreed.  Jesus  said:  “As  ye  go, 
preach.”  After  the  martyrdom  of  Stephen,  “they 
that  were  scattered  abroad  went  everywhere 
preaching  the  Word.”  Paul  said  :  “  The  Jews  re¬ 
quire  a  sign,  the  Greeks  seek  after  wisdom,  but 
we  preach  Christ  crucified.”  To  fortify  his  teach¬ 
ing  in  the  minds  of  adults,  and  to  introduce  his 
preaching  into  the  minds  of  children,  Christ 
“  taught.”  The  Church  must  teach  for  the  same 
reasons.  It  seems  strange  that  there  should  ever 
have  been  a  question  of  this.  The  adult  that  be¬ 
lieves  when  preached  to  must  be  grounded  in  the 


The  Problem  of  Missions. 


39 


faith  that  saves  him,  especially  if  he  is  to  become 
a  preacher  to  others.  This  can  only  be  done  by 
teaching — Christian  teaching.  The  transcendent 
reason,  however,  for  constituting  the  Church  a 
teacher,  is  found  in  the  fact  that  Christianity’s 
hope,  always  and  everywhere,  is  the  child  world, 
and  because  the  “child  world’’  alone  is  amenable 
to  educational  influences. 

That  the  education  may  begin  at  the  right  time 
and  progress  in  the  right  direction,  the  order  of 
the  commission  enjoins  discipling  (by  baptism) 
first,  then  teaching  what  Christ  commanded.  This 
order  is  specially  adapted  to  children,  and  strong¬ 
ly  enforces  infant  baptism. 

Two  important  points  regarding  our  mission 
schools  are  to  be  guarded — viz;  {a)  The  founda¬ 
tion;  ( b )  the  extent  of  the  curriculum.  Beyond 
all  question  the  foundation  ought  to  be  unqual¬ 
ifiedly  religious.  Without  indorsing  the  matter 
of  Rome’s  teaching,  nevertheless  she  holds  the 
right  principle  in  this  matter.  Secular  education 
without  a  religious  foundation  of  the  right  sort 
is  a  dangerous  acquisition  anywhere ;  it  is  espe¬ 
cially  so  among  a  people  enamored  of  the  material 
benefits  of  Christianity,  but  caring  nothing  for  its 
spiritual  salvation.  India  and  Japan  furnish  abun¬ 
dant  instruction  on  this  point.  It  is  to  be  feared 
that  some  of  our  mission  schools  are  engaged  in 
a  very  doubtful  work,  because  of  the  modicum  of 
religious  influence  that  pervades  them.  As  to  the 
extent  of  the  curriculum,  circumstances  must 
largely  determine.  All  that  there  is  of  true  learn¬ 
ing  is  the  protege  of  the  gospel,  and  is  as  much 


40 


The  Problem  of  Missions. 


the  property  of  the  Church  as  the  gospel  itself. 
Nothing  worthy  to  be  taught  can  find  better  con¬ 
ditions  of  dispensation  than  those  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  school,  which  yields  to  none  either  in  capaci¬ 
ty  or  authority  to  teach.  Let  the  curriculum  em¬ 
brace  everything  that  is  needful  and  that  can  be 
used  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 

Again,  Jesus  “healed  ’all  manner  of  sickness 
and  all  manner  of  disease  among  the  people.” 
The  Church  is  just  as  much  under  obligation  to 
do  this  as  she  is  either  to  preach  or  to  teach. 
Medical  and  surgical  science  constitutes  as  much 
a  part  of  the  boon  that  Christianity  has  conferred 
upon  the  human  race  as  do  Churches  and  schools  ; 
and  just  as  the  study  and  knowledge  of  universal 
language  has  superseded  the  original  gift  of 
tongues  in  preaching  and  teaching  everywhere, 
so  scientific  mastery  of  sickness  and  disease  has 
taken  the  place  of  miraculous  cures. 

The  Church  can  no  more  make  full  proof  of  her 
ministry  among  the  poor,  offcast,  sick,  and  dis¬ 
ease-smitten,  at  home  and  broad,  without  availing 
herself  of  all  that  her  Master  has  put  in  her 
hands  for  their  relief,  in  body  as  well  as  in  mind 
and  spirit,  than  could  he  have  been  the  Saviour  he 
was  and  yet  have  passed  by  the  helpless,  suffering 
multitudes  that  hung  upon  his  steps,  without  com¬ 
passionating  and  helping  them. 

At  home  Protestant  Churches  may  find  sonie> 
though  very  inadequate,  excuse  for  doing  so  little 
in  the  way  of  hospital  and  dispensary  work.  They 
may  say  that  all  this  is  amply  provided  for  on  the 
secular  side  of  our  civilization.  While  this  state- 


The  Problem  of  Missions. 


41 


ment  falls  far  short  of  the  truth,  let  it  be  granted 
for  the  nonce;  still,  outside  this  civilization,  a 
Christian  mission  is  certainly  very  poorly  equipped 
for  the  work  which  it  has  accepted  from  the  hands 
of  the  Great  Ph3^sician,  as  well  as  the  Great  Preacher 
•and  Teacher,  unless  it  is  supplied  with  competent 
doctors  and  medicines  for  the  body,  as  well  as 
teachers  and  preachers  for  the  mind  and  heart. 

As  was  said  at  the  beginning,  we  are  learning,  often 
from  sad  experiences  and  humiliating  failures,  what 
we  ought  to  have  known  from  the  personal  life  of 
Him  who  taught  infinitely  more  by  example  than  bj" 
precept — viz:  {a)  That  the  body  of  the  veriest  out¬ 
cast  is  worth  being  rescued  in  the  name  of  Christ; 
( b )  that  oftener  than  otherwise  among  extreme  suf¬ 
ferers,  the  only  wa}^  open  to  the  soul  is  through  re¬ 
lief  of  the  body.  In  all  heathen  lands,  and  in  many 
regions  which  we  are  trying  to  rescue  from  the  long 
and  bitter  reign  of  Romanism,  the  medical  arm  of 
our  missions  is  the  most  hopeful  for  immediate,  for 
thorough,  for  permanent  results.  Our  hospitals  and 
dispensaries  must  be  maintained  and  multiplied. 

Phnally,  the  problem  of  nineteen  centuries  still 
awaits  a  solution  at  the  hands  of  the  Church. 
Great  will  be  the  opportunity,  yet  fearful  the  re¬ 
sponsibility,  of  him  who  is  called  to  move  amid  the 
scenes  and  activities  of  the  next  one  hundred  j^ears. 
The  Church  holds  the  ke}’-  to  every  situation.  Her 
prayer,  her  faith,  her  consecrated  endeavor  can 
command  victory  for  her  Lord  out  of  ever^"  clash 
of  adverse  forces;  or  her  indifference,  her  doubt, 
her  hesitancy,  as  in  the  past,  can  transfer  the  issue 
to  future  generations. 


PAYING  AND  GIVING. 


CHE  great  conflict  which  is  to  decide  the  proprie¬ 
torship  and  government  of  this  world  is  too  far  • 
advanced  for  any  one  having  both  intelligence  and 
honesty  to  call  in  qnCvStion  either  the  rightfulness, 
the  reasonableness,  or  the  hopefulness  of  Christian¬ 
ity’s  cause.  Even  those  who  acknowledge  a  mere¬ 
ly  nominal  allegiance  to  Christ  are  constrained  to 
confess  that  the  earth  and  its  fullness  are  his  of 
right,  and  must  ere  long  be  his  in  fact.  His  Lord- 
ship  has  come  to  be  esteemed  as  not  only  funda¬ 
mental  to  the  Christian  creed,  but  as  well  an  essen¬ 
tial  element  of  Christian  civilization.  Second  only 
to  this  is  the  doctrine  of  man’s  stewardship.  In¬ 
deed,  the  two  seem  never  to  have  been  separated  in 
the  Mind,  as  they  never  stand  apart  in  the  Word,  of 
our  divine  Master.  “  Why  call  ye  me  Lord,  Lord, 
and  do  not  the  things  which  I  say?  ”  “Not  every 
one  that  sayeth  unto  me  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of 
my  Father  who  is  in  heaven.”  “Who  then  is  that 
faithful  and  wise  steward  whom  his  Lord  shall 
make  ruler  over  his  household  ?  ”  “  Blessed  is  that 

servant  whom  his  Lord  when  he  cometh  shall  find 
so  doing.” 

The  point  at  which  men  seem  dullest  in  compre¬ 
hending  this  relationship  to  their  Lord,  and  slowest 
in  conceding  his  claims  upon  them,  is  in  the  use  of 
their  money.  The  Gospel  teaches  nothing  more 
evidently  and  emphatically  than  that  every  man  is 

(42) 


Paying  and  Giving. 


43 


directly  responsible  to  the  Master  for  the  right  use 
of  every  dollar  and  of  every  dollar’s  worth  that 
falls  into  his  hands;  that  his  right  to  have  and  to 
hold  and  handle  property  in  any  shape  depends 
solely  upon  his  getting  and  using  it  as  the  law  of 
Christ’s  kingdom  directs.  Yet  how  far  below  this 
unappealable  standard  is  the  practice  of  even  the 
average  Church  member !  How  far  short  of  it  is 
the  average  pulpit  teaching  ! 

What  a  modicum  of  power  does  this  twin  doc¬ 
trine — Christ’s  lordship  and  man’s  stewardship — 
exert  in  directing  the  ordinary  investments,  gains, 
and  uses  of  money  even  within  the  '  Church  ! 
How  seldom,  too,  do  the  Lord’s  messengers  press 
as  they  do  other  vital  matters  this  question  of  ques¬ 
tions:  “  How  much  owest  thou  unto  my  Lord  ?  ” 

There  is  certainly  great  ignorance,  great  negli¬ 
gence,  great  criminality,  great  loss  in  this  day  of 
grace  at  this  point,  for  which  somebody  is  responsi¬ 
ble,  and  for  which  account  must  be  rendered  some¬ 
time  and  somewhere.  The  Church  is  suffering 
grievously  from  the  idolatrous  sin  of  covetousness. 
Its  worst  feature  is  not  our  depleted  and  debt-bur¬ 
dened  missionary  treasuries,  nor  our  shamefully 
meager  and  illy  sustained  missionary  forces,  though 
either  of  these  is  sufficient  to  startle  any  sensitive 
Christian  conscience.  But  the  truly  alarming  fea¬ 
ture  is  the  benumbed  and  deadened  conscience  that 
can  contemplate  these  disgraceful  things  with  in¬ 
difference,  not  to  say  complacency.  The  Church 
(and  by  the  Church  I  mean  the  entire  membership, 
with  only  exceptions  enough  to  confirm  the  rule) 
not  only  sins  in  her  “  greed  for  gain,”  just  like  the 


44 


Paying  and  Giving. 


world’s  people,  but  she  is  foolishly  deceiving  her¬ 
self  in  regard  to  the  little  that  is,  by  various  meth¬ 
ods,  pressed  out  of  her  in  the  name  of  the  Lord 
and  humanity. 

Individuals  and  Churches  often  congratulate 
themselves,  and  boast  in  an  unseemly  way  to  others 
concerning  what  they  “give,”  while  in  truth  and 
in  the  Lord’s  esteem  they  have  given  absolutely 
nothing.  People  do  not  “  give  ”  to  the  Lord  when 
they  build  their  own  houses  of  worship,  support 
their  own  preachers,  take  care  of  their  own  Sunday 
schools,  or  feed  and  clothe  their  own  poor.  Not 
to  do  these  is  to  deny  the  faith,  and  to  be  worse 
than  an  infidel.  To  do  them  is  to  pay  a  small  part 
of  what  is  due  on  our  constantly  accumulating  in¬ 
terest  and  rental.  To  the  faithful  steward  the  Mas¬ 
ter  has  promised  a  “living”  for  himself  and  his,  and 
has  secured  it  beyond  contingency.  Out  of  this 
‘  ‘  living  ’  ’  must  come  any  ‘  ‘  gift  ’  ’  with  which  a  man 
would  enrich  God’s  treasury  and  make  himself  a 
factor  in  carrying  the  gospel  into  regions  beyond. 

The  Jew  “paid”  tithes  and  “gave”  offerings. 
What  made  the  widow’s  two  mites  a  gift  was  that 
they  constituted  her  “living;”  and  what  made 
them  of  incalculable  value  was  that  they  were  all 
the  living  she  had.  The  Church  sadly  misuses — 
yes,  grossly  abuses — the  best-defined  terms  when 
she  talks  so  glibly  and  writes  so  voluminously 
about  her  “giving,”  her  “offerings,”  when  she 
has  not  even  approximated  the  payment  of  her 
rent.  Another  error  that  has  become  a  sore  evil  in 
the  Church  is  the  notion  that  some,  even  many, 
people  are  too  poor  either  to  pay  or  give. 


Paying  and  Giinng. 


45 


It  is  time  that  we  were  all  learning  that  in  Christ’s 
economy  no  one  is  absolved ;  none  are  too  poor. 
The  double  principle  involved  in  this  economy  is : 
(<7)  To  maintain  and  develop  in  us  the  grace  of 
common  honesty — no  man  can  be  honest  and  not 
pay  his  debts;  {b')  to  educate  us  in  the  spirit  and 
practice  of  self-sacrifice — no  man  can  be  a  Christian 
and  consume  God’s  bounty  upon  himself. 

The  requirement  to  both  pay  and  give,  universal  as 
it  is,  is  not  arbitrary.  The  principle  of  it  inheres  in 
the  very  relation  we  sustain  to  the  fact  of  our  re¬ 
demption  and  salvation.  Christ  has  left  no  soul 
unredeemed,  no  subject  of  his  kingdom  unendowed. 
He  has  giveu  to  every  man.  And  while  he  is  not 
dependent  on  the  tithes  we  pay,  we  cannot  be  loyal 
to  him  and  not  pay  them.  While  our  gifts  may 
not  enrich  him,  we  cannot  be  his  disciples  and  not 
bestow  them.  Every  redeemed  soul  has  something 
wherewith  to  “pay  and  give  as  unto  the  Lord.’^ 
If  not  dollars,  then  cents;  if  not  cents,  then  some 
other  testimonial  of  obligation  and  gratitude — 
work,  prayer,  praise;  something,  “according  to 
that  he  hath,  not  according  to  that  he  hath  not.’’ 

All  may  of  thee,  O  blessed  Christ,  partake. 

Nothing-  so  small  can  be, 

But  draws,  when  acted  for  thy  sake, 

Greatness  and  worth  from  thee. 

It  is  not  the  amount  that  one  pays  or  gives,  but 
the  amount  that  he  keeps  back  for  his  own  aggran¬ 
dizement,  that  settles  the  question  of  his  honesty 
or  dishonesty,  his  liberality  or  churlishness.  Noth¬ 
ing  is  more  fatal  to  spiritual  life,  nothing  more  hin¬ 
dering  to  growth  and  usefulness,  than  this  idea  of 


46 


Paying  and  Giinng. 


irresponsibility  in  the  matter  of  giving.  It  robs  of 
their  heritage  the  very  ones  for  whom  the  gospel  is 
chiefly  designed.  “Hath  not  God  chosen  the  poor 
of  this  world  rich  in  faith,  and  heirs  of  the  kingdom 
which  he  hath  prepared  for  them  that  love  him  ?  ” 
The  invariable  law  of  that  kingdom  is  that  a  failure 
to  impart  to  others,  as  occasion  serves,  the  grace 
received,  is  to  forfeit  that  grace  ourselves.  To  re¬ 
ceive  and  not  to  give,  is  to  receive  the  grace  of  God 
in  vain. 

The  two  turtle  doves  or  the  two  young  pigeons, 
in  the  hands  of  honest  poverty,  were  equally  valua¬ 
ble,  in  God’s  esteem,  with  the  lamb,  or  even  the 
bullock,  in  the  hands  of  the  rich.  For  their  sakes 
the  poor  of  the  Church  ought  to  be  induced  to  give, 
that,  like  the  Macedonians,  “their  poverty  may 
abound  to  the  riches  of  their  liberality.” 

There  is  to-day  immeasurably  more  hope  to  the 
Church  and  to  the  world  in  cultivating  Macedonian 
poverty  than  in  patronizing  Laodicean  wealth. 
Indeed,  the  shame  of  the  pulpit,  the  weakness  of 
the  Church,  and  the  bane  of  the  world  is  the  fawn¬ 
ing  deference  shown  men  because  they  have  money. 
Rich  men  are  no  more  a  safe  reliance  in  the  Church 
to-day  than  they  were  when  James  wrote  his  in¬ 
spired  letter  of  warning  and  instruction  to  the 
twelve  tribes  scattered  abroad. 

With  exceptions  too  few  to  affect  the  rule,  they 
neither  pay  nor  give  according  to  the  divine  law. 
Even  those  who  have  the  credit  of  doing  so  make 
large  exemptions  in  the  way  of  palatial  residen¬ 
ces,  costly  furniture,  fine  clothing,  high  living, 
showy  equipage,  and  an  exhaustive  worldly  outfit 


Paying  and  Giving. 


47 


in  general,  to  meet  the  assnmed  demands  of  so- 
called  society  upon  them  and  their  families.  Mark 
yon,  this  same  society  is  what  Christ  and  his  apos¬ 
tles  called  the  “world”  and  “  mammon,”  and  of 
which  they  say:  “  Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  mam¬ 
mon.”  “Whosoever  will  be  a  friend  of  the  world 
is  the  enemy  of  God.”  “  If  any  man  love  the 
world,  the  love  of  the  Father  is  not  in  him.”  The 
demands  of  society  are  unprovided  for  in  the 
economy  of  grace,  while  the  claims  of  Jesus 
Christ  constitute  the  supreme  law. 

The  sequestration  of  the  Lord’s  money  in  the 
interest  of  society,  except  to  revolutionize,  disin¬ 
fect,  and  reconstruct  it,  is  a  base  fraud.  Yet  the 
Church  money  thus  divorced  from  its  legitimate 
functions  of  paying  and  giving  in  the  Lord’s  ser¬ 
vice  would  fill  the  treasury  of  every  Mission 
Board  and  man  every  open  mission  field  on  the 
two  hemispheres. 

According  to  the  almanac  published  by  the 
American  Board  of  Missions  for  1901,  the  foreign 
mission  receipts  for  the  thirty-five  general  mis¬ 
sionary  societies  of  this  country  for  last  year 
were  $5,209,656.  This  amount  divided  among  the 
members  of  the  various  Protestant  Churches 
would  give  an  average  of  less  than  twenty-five 
cents.  Nothing  can  be  more  apparent  to  a  candid 
observer  than  that  this  amount  could  be  quadru¬ 
pled  in  a  single  year  if  the  spirit  of  Christ  pre¬ 
vailed  in  the  Church,  and  that,  too,  without  any 
real  personal  sacrifice  upon  the  part  of  a  single 
member. 

There  is  a  vast  deal  of  pseudo  spirituality  exhib- 


48 


Paying  and  Giving. 


ited  in  certain  quarters  nowadays  in  the  shape  of 
criticism  adverse  to  laying  stress  on  the  matter  of 
collections  at  our  various  Conferences.  As  an 
antidote  for,  or  at  least  as  a  partial  quietus  upon, 
this  impertinent  effervescence,  let  it  be  said:  («) 
That  while  no  preacher  ought  to  be  held  respon¬ 
sible  in  any  way  for  the  shortcomings  of  an  un¬ 
appreciative  and  irresponsive  people,  nevertheless 
every  preacher  is  morally  bound,  and  ought  to  be 
so  held  by  Church  law,  to  see  that  the  connection- 
al  claims  share  at  least  equally  with  his  own 
among  the  people  he  serves.  There  is  something 
radically  wrong  with  the  preacher  who  compla¬ 
cently  poekets  his  own  claim  in  full  and  then  just 
as  coolly  reports  the  colleetions  twenty- five  or 
fifty  per  cent  short.  I  have  never  heard  anything 
said  at  Conferenee,  or  anywhere  else,  too  severe 
for  that  preacher’s  case,  {b')  By  every  available 
token  we  are  justified  in  measuring  the  genuine¬ 
ness  and  depth  of  a  member’s  spiritual  life  by  the 
generosity  of  his  giving.  Think  as  you  may, 
talk  and  write  as  3'ou  please,  it  is  nevertheless  un¬ 
questionably  true  that  a  man’s  profession  of  re¬ 
ligion  can  be  better  tested  and  measured  by  the 
motive  and  extent  of  his  giving  than  b}^  an^'  other 
known  method. 

Charity  may  forbid  the  saying  in  so  many  words 
that  a  penurious  man  cannot  have  religion,  but  to 
say  that  such  a  man  can  enjoy  religion  is  to  con¬ 
found  thought  and  confuse  the  terms  of  its  ex¬ 
pression.  Man^'  preachers,  as  well  as  Church 
members,  object  strenuously  to  the  association  of 
the  Old  Testament  idea  of  tithing  with  our  Chris- 


Paying  and  Giving. 


49 


tian  economy.  They  sa}^  that  it  is  not  sanctioned 
by  New  Testament  teaching.  I  am  not  disposed 
to  contend  for  the  letter  when  more  than  the 
equivalent  of  its  spirit  is  everywhere  inculcated. 
Conformity  to  the  New  Testament  “paying  and 
giving”  would  not  only  put  “meat  in  God’s 
house,”  but  would  pile  every  Christian  altar  with 
the  richest  of  freewill  offerings.  Some  of  these 
principles  are;  “Cheerfully;”  “as  much  as  in  us 
lies;”  “according  as  God  has  prospered;”  “lay 
by  in  store  on  the  first  day  of  the  week ;  ”  “  heart¬ 
ily,  as  unto  the  Lord  ;  ”  “  for  the  glory  of  God  ;  ” 
“  all  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  ;  ”  “  not  grudg¬ 
ingly,  or  of  necessity;”  “he  that  giveth,  let  him 
do  it  with  simplicity.” 

It  is  a  shame  that  a  worldly  spirit  and  worldly 
methods  so  largely  enter  into  the  gathering  of 
even  the  little  we  do  turn  into  the  Lord’s  treas¬ 
ury ;  that  a  popular  and  successful  scheme  for  do¬ 
ing  Church  work  or  raising  Church  funds  must 
provide  a  quid  pro  quo  in  some  form — fun,  recrea¬ 
tion,  self- glory — a  pound  of  self-gratification  to  a 
grain  of  self-denial.  When  will  we  learn  the  bet¬ 
ter  way:  “The  love  of  Christ  constraineth  us;” 
the  higher  experience:  “It  is  more  blessed  to 
give  than  to  receive  ?  ” 

As  a  means  of  awakening  our  people  to  in¬ 
creased  missionary  zeal  and  activity,  some  breth¬ 
ren  have  great  faitkin  the  dissemination  of  mis¬ 
sionary  literature.  This  certainly  is  not  to  be 
despised,  furnishing,  as  it  does,  so  much  of  en¬ 
couragement  and  direction  to  the  faith  and  the 
labor  of  trul}^  consecrated  men  and  women.  To 
4 


50 


Paying  and  Giving. 


these  it  is  invaluable.  But  it  does  seem  to  me 
that  the  masses  of  the  Church  need  something 
more  radical  than  this.  In  their  present  attitude 
to  Christ  and  his  kingdom,  the  conversion  of  the 
world,  or  any  part  of  it  foreign  to  themselves,  is 
to  them  a  matter  of  comparative  indifference. 
That  attitude  is  one  of  practical  infidelity.  The 
coming  of  Christ’s  kingdom  is  one  of  the  vaguest, 
most  unlikely  things  in  all  their  thoughts.  Their 
prayer  for  it  is  a  dream,  their  desire  for  it  is  a 
nebulous  sentiment. 

Indeed,  if  to  know  God’s  Word,  to  believe  God’s 
Word,  to  experience  personally  the  saving  power 
of  God’s  Word,  does  not  make  missionaries  of 
men  and  women,  ready  to  “go  or  send”  wherever 
God  opens  the  way,  then  no  amount  of  informa¬ 
tion  about  the  field  or  workers  can  do  so.  World¬ 
ly  wisdom  and  secular  economy  may  consistently 
withhold  their  patronage  where  these  proofs  are 
wanting;  but  we  “walk  by  faith,  not  by  sight.” 

To  the  converted,  consecrated,  Bible-knowing 
Christian  it  is  enough  that  he  who  is  Lord  of  all 
says:  “The  field  is  the  world;”  i^b)  “the 

seed  is  the  Word  of  God;  ”  (r)  “the  sower  soweth 
the  Word;”  (^d)  “blessed  are  they  that  sow’  be¬ 
side  all  waters;”  and  (^)  “  lo,  I  am  with  you 
alway,  even  to  the  end  of  the  w’orld.” 

Participation  in  the  dividends  of  a  redeemed 
and  reinstated  w’orld  in  the  ratio  of  a  hundredfold 
of  their  investment  in  the  present  time  and  eter¬ 
nal  life  hereafter,  is  the  unfailing  heritage  of 
those  who  give  themselves  and  their  all  to  the 
bringing  in  of  Christ’s  kingdom.  What  of  those 


Paying  and  Giving.  51 

whose  service  and  treasure  are  all  confined  to 
earth  ? 

My  brethren, 

The  restless  millions  wait 

That  lig’ht,  whose  dawning  maketh  all  things  new; 
Christ  also  waits,  hut  men  are  slow  and  late. 

Have  we  done  what  we  could?  Have  I?  Have  you? 

A  cloud  of  witnesses  above  encompass  us, 

We  love  to  think  of  all  they  see  and  know ; 

But  what  of  this  great  multitude  in  peril. 

Who  sadly  wait  below? 

O  let  this  thrilling  vision  daily  move  us 
To  earnest  prayers  and  deeds  before  unknown. 

That  souls  redeemed  from  many  lands  may  join  us. 

When  Christ  brings  home  his  own. 


» 


ENLISTMENT  OF  PASTORS. 


TN  all  forms  of  polity  known  to  the  Christian 
Church  the  pastor  is  an  important  factor.  This 
is  pre-eminently  so  in  the  economy  of  Episcopal 
Methodism.  Here  no  connectional  enterprise  can 
succeed  without  his  sympathy  and  co-operation. 
No  matter  how  well  conceived,  how  wisely  planned, 
how  zealously  advocated  by  others  any  cause  of 
Christ’s  kingdom  may  be,  if,  for  any  reason,  the 
pastor  fails  to  comprehend  it,  fails  to  fall  in  line 
with  it,  fails  to  throw  himself  into  it,  the  people 
will,  as  a  rule,  remain  unappreciative  and  unre¬ 
sponsive. 

This  is  but  a  corollary  of  the  divinely  announced 
proposition:  “Like  priest,  like  people;”  the  in¬ 
evitable  consequence  from  the  investment  made 
by  the  great  Head  of  the  Church  when  he  said  : 
“  I  will  give  unto  thee  the  keys  of  the  ^ingdom 
of  heaven,” 

It  was  to  the  pastor  of  the  Gospel  age  that  he 
said:  “Go  make  disciples  of  the  nations;”  and 
under  this  commission  any  plan  or  movement 
which  ignores  or  discounts  that  element  which 
the  Master  dignifies  with  the  chiefest  place  and 
burdens  with  the  highest  responsibility  is  already 
a  failure. 

It  is  no  matter  of  wonder,  then,  that  those  hav¬ 
ing  charge  of  general  Church  interests  should 
make  the  “enlistment  of  pastors”  among  their 
first  and  greatest  matters  of  concern.  By  so  far 

(52) 


Enlistment  of  Pastors. 


53 


as  the  work  of  missions  is  above  and  comprehen¬ 
sive  of  all  other  enterprises  of  the  Church,  by  just 
so  far  does  it  need,  and  claim,  and  seek  such  an 
enlistment. 

I  have  been  officially  requested  to  answer  the 
question,  “  How  can  we  better  enlist  our  pastors 
in  missions  ?  ”  My  intimate  association  with  my 
brethren  in  all  the  grades  of  itinerant  service  for 
more  than  forty  years  may  justify  this  attempt  at 
compliance. 

It  ought,  however,  to  be  premised  that  the  true 
pastor  does  not  need  to  be  enlisted.  He  who  is, 
in  experience  and  work,  an  under-shepherd  of  the 
one  only  Great  Shepherd  of  the  sheep,  by  virtue 
of  his  very  relationship  breathes  and  dispenses 
the  missionary  fire.  He  may  never  have  heard  of 
a  Mission  Board  ;  he  may  never  have  been  thrilled 
by  a  direct  and  personal  appeal  from  the  “  regions 
beyond ;  ”  he  may  never  have  been  brought  in  con¬ 
tact  with  an  organized  movenient.to  give  the  gospel 
to  the  nations ;  yet,  with  the  divine  Image  restored 
to  him,  with  the  divine  Nature  renewed  in  him, 
with  the  divine  call  summoning  him,  with  the  di¬ 
vine  unction  resting  upon  him,  he  cannot  but  seek 
to  share  with  others,  att  others^  by  all  possible 
means,  the  grace  that  saves  him.  To  enlist  him 
you  have  but  to  make  known  to  him  the  purpose 
of  the  Master  and  the  plans  of  the  Church.  The 
fact,  if  it  be  a  fact.,  that,  at  this  late  day,  in  a  move¬ 
ment  like  that  to  which  the  entire  Church  is  being 
rallied,  a  movement  of  which  all  the  achievements 
of  the  nineteenth  century  were  only  a  prophecy, 
any  number  of  our  pastors  are  found  to  be  either 


54 


Enlistment  of  Pastors. 


indifferent  or  inefficient,  is  significant  of  a  state 
of  affairs  more  to  be  dreaded  and  deprecated  than 
all  the  financial  panics,  money  stringencies,  and 
Mongolian  wars  that  could  possibly  befall  us. 
But  one  thing  seems  equally  appalling;  viz,  that 
spiritual,  or  rather  unspiritual,  condition  of  the 
Church  in  many  places  which  necessitates  the  ex¬ 
penditure  of  more  than  nine-tenths  of  all  evan¬ 
gelical  force  upon  itself  before  the  world  can  be 
reached.  Precedent  to  enlistment  of  pastors,  then, 
we  must  make  sure  of  the  pastors. 

Pursuant  to  the  “  making  of  a  man,”  the  making 
of  a  preacher,  a  pastor,  is  the  greatest  triumph  of 
divine  grace,  and  involves  the  greatest  outlay  of 
human  resources.  In  no  carping,  no  depreciatory 
spirit  is  it  averred  that  in  order  to  do  her  part  in 
the  world’s  evangelization — a  part  made  impera¬ 
tive  by  her  numbers,  social  prestige,  and  oppor¬ 
tunity — Southern  Methodism  must  make  a  decided 
and  speedy  advance  in  the  personnel  of  her  min¬ 
istry.  This  is  no  special  plea  for  theological  ma¬ 
chines  for  making  preachers.  What  is  meant  is 
that  our  preachers  must  know  God’s  Word ;  that, 
in  order  to  this,  their  mental  vigor,  their  mental 
culture,  their  mental  development  must  be  brought 
to  and  kept  at  their  best ;  that  they  must  be  stu¬ 
dents,  knowing  how  to  use,  and  using,  every  text¬ 
book  in  nature,  letters,  providence,  and  grace  that 
God  may  throw  in  their  way.  A  pastorate  composed 
of  men  with  intellect  and  training  enough  to  grasp 
God’s  Word;  with  religion  enough  to  see  a  living 
Christ  in  every  page;  with  call  enough  to  make 
them  feel,  “  Woe  is  me  if  I  preach  not  the  gospel ;  ” 


Enlistment  of  Pastors. 


55 


conscience  and  consecration  enough  to  realize 
in  themselves,  “  I  am  debtor  both  to  the  Greek 
and  to  the  Barbarian,  both  to  the  wise  and  the 
unwise,”  may  well  be  relied  on  to  co-operate  in¬ 
telligently  and  heartily  with  any  enterprise  that 
promises  to  give  Christ  his  own.  There  surely 
must  be  something  radically  wrong  in  the  con¬ 
version,  call,  or  spiritual  capital  of  that  preacher 
w^ho  to-day  is  not  an  ardent  friend  and  forwarder 
of  missions. 

Theoretically — may  I  not  say  practically  as 
well  ? — the  pastorate  of  Episcopal  Methodism  con¬ 
sists  of  the  bishop,  the  presiding  elder,  and  the 
preacher  in  charge ;  to  whom  may  be  added  from 
among  the  laymen,  the  class  leader,  the  Sunday 
school  superintendent,  and  the  Sunday  school 
teacher.  A  more  thorough  or  a  better  correlated 
system  it  would  be  hard  to  conceive.  Indeed,  as 
a  system  it  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired.  With 
Christ  at  its  head  and  the  Holy  vSpirit  in  its  heart, 
and  the  right  man  in  each  place,  it  is  invincible. 
It  ought  itself  to  take  the  world  for  Christ  within 
a  century. 

No  man,  personally  or  officially,  has  a  larger 
sphere  for  good  than  a  Methodist  bishop.  Through 
the  lower  forms  of  the  pastorate  his  hand  is  upon 
every  interest  and  upon  every  man,  w^oman,  and 
child  in  the  entire  Church.  How  transcendently 
important  it  is  that  the  life  and  official  acts  of 
such  a  man  be  saturated  with  the  spirit  of  missions ! 
One  of  his  chief  functions  is  to  make  presiding 
elders.  At  no  other  point  of  his  administration 
does  he  affect  the  Church  so  directly  or  so  radical- 


56 


Enlistme7it  of  Pastors. 


ly.  An  anti-missionary  or  an  uninission ary  presid¬ 
ing  elder  is  an  intrusion  upon  our  economy.  He 
can  do  more  to  neutralize,  to  thwart,  to  defeat 
connectional  plans,  than  half  a  score  of  ordinary 
pastors.  It  devolves  upon  our  bishops  to  put  and 
keep  such  men  in  this  important  arm  of  the  pas¬ 
torate  as  have  both  an  understanding  of  the 
« 

times,  to  know  what  our  Israel  ought  to  do,  and 
personal  energy  and  influence  enough  to  see  that 
Israel  does  it. 

Article  XVII.  of  the  Constitution  of  our  Mission 
Board  furnishes  a  good  bulletin  for  a  willing  pre¬ 
siding  elder.  The  thirteenth  question  in  the  pro¬ 
gramme  of  Quarterly  Conference  business  affords 
a  fine  opportunity  for  the  discussion  of  plans,  as 
well  as  for  the  hearing  of  reports,  on  the  cause 
of  missions  ;  for  the  substitution  of  well-tried  and 
successful  ones  for  those  that  are  crude  and  ill- 
conceived  and  anti-Methodistic.  It  is  safe  to 
sa}^  that  wherever  a  presiding  elder  will  follow  up 
these  lines  intelligently,  faithfully,  persistently, 
he  will,  for  the  most  part,  command  his  co-labor¬ 
ers  after  him. 

In  conclusion,  two  or  three  questions  pertinent 
to  the  matter  under  discussion  are  commended  to 
all  concerned. 

First,  where  do  we  get  the  idea,  now  practically 
universal  in  the  Church,  of  a  limited  call  to  the 
gospel  ministry? — i.  e.y  a  call  to  preach  within  cer¬ 
tain  territorial  bounds  to  be  largely  determined 
by  the  preacher  himself.  Certainly  not  from  the 
commission  given  by  our  Lord,  which  is  quoted  as 
the  sole  authority  for  all  gospel  preaching,  that 


Enlistment  of  Pastors. 


57 


says  without  any  qualification,  “  Go  into  all  the 
world  ;  ”  not  from  the  call  of  the  Holy  Spirit : 

When  he  has  come  upon  you  ...  ye  shall 
he  witnesses  unto  me  ...  to  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth ;  ”  not  from  the  precepts  and 
practice  of  Paul,  the  first  missionary  to  the  Gen¬ 
tiles.  He  said  :  “  I  am  debtor  both  to  the  Greek 
and  to  the  Barbarian,  both  to  the  wise  and 
the  unwise;”  and  one  of  his  chiefest  grounds 
for  glory  was  that  he  had  not  entered  into  oth¬ 
er  men’s  labors,  but  that  “  from  Jerusalem  and 
round  about  to  Illyricum,  I  have  fully  preached 
the  gospel  of  Christ.”  Finally,  Methodist  preach¬ 
ers  did  not  get  it  from  the  sayings  or  doings  of 
John  Wesley.  He  said :  “  The  wortd  is  my  par¬ 
ish.'"  His  conception  of  the  itineracy  which  he 
instituted  was  that  of  an  aggressive  force  which 
should  camp  on  the  field  and  be  ever  ready  for  an 
advance ;  not  that  of  an  army  in  garrison,  nine- 
tenths  of  which  are  required  to  look  after  the 
stuff,”  while  the  others  simply  go  foraging.  Is 
not  the  whole  thing  a  false  interpretation  of  a  di¬ 
vine  call  to  preach,  and  is  it  not  largely  responsi¬ 
ble  for  much  of  ministerial  barrenness  at  home  as 
well  as  ministerial  scarcity  abroad  ?  A  call  to 
preach  at  alt  means  a  call  to  preach  everyzvhere., 
f|  with  only  such  limitations  as  God’s  providence 
g  may  fix.  The  man  who  undertakes  to  fix  them 
I  for  himself  vitiates  the  divine  call,  and  lays  an 
embargo  on  his  own  ministry. 

A  second  question  is :  In  view  of  the  fact  that 
the  Church  was  organized  and  the  ministry  insti¬ 
tuted  for  the  sole  purpose  of  evangelizing  the 


58 


Enlistment  of  Pastors. 


world ;  in  view  of  the  fact  that  theological  schools 
have  for  their  avowed  object  the  training  for 
this  purpose  a  more  efficient  ministry,  how 
is  it  that  these  schools  have  so  long  deemed 
their  course  of  instruction  adequate,  without 
even  an  approximation  to  a  department  of  mis¬ 
sions  ;  and  how  is  it  that  the  highest  ambition 
of  ninety  per  cent  of  their  ministerial  output  is  to 
enter  into  the  most  inviting  home  fields  of  oth¬ 
er  men’s  labors,  leaving  those  of  less  ambition 
or  less  promise  of  popular  favor  to  be  called  to  go 
abroad  ? 

Still  another/question :  Since  Methodism  is  ac¬ 
counted  a  revival  of  primitive  Christianity,  since 
her  ministry  seeks  to  exemplify  the  principles 
and  polity  of  the  Pauline  regime.,  why  is  it  that 
up  to  a  very  late  day  no  book  or  other  means  of 
instruction  on  the  subject  of  missions  was  put  on 
the  course  of  study  required  of  undergraduate 
preachers  ? 

Brethren,  v/hen  all  our  preachers  come  to  inter¬ 
pret  their  call  to  preach  as  also  a  summons  to  go ; 
when  they  come  to  stay  at  home  only  because 
they  cannot  go  abroad ;  then  will  our  workers 
abroad  be  notably  more  numerous,  and  the  helpers 
at  home  be  essentially  more  effective. 

P'or  which  let  us  all  pray. 


PRAYER  AND  MISSIONS. 


TF  we  search  exhaustively  the  domain  of  earthly 
entities  it  will  be  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to 
bring  into  juxtaposition  two  other  things  of  equal 
individual  importance,  and  at  the  same  time  of 
such  unmistakable  interdependence.  I  shall  speak 
of  each  in  its  direct  relation  to  Christ’s  economy 
in  the  world,  then  of  their  correlation  in  that 
same  economy. 

Prayer  is  at  the  same  time  man’s  highest  privi¬ 
lege  and  his  most  imperative  duty  in  this  life,  not¬ 
withstanding  the  fact  that  no  other  privilege  is  so 
lightly  esteemed,  and  no  other  duty  so  carelessly, 
so  imperfectly  performed. 

“Ask,”  “seek,”  “knock”  are  some  of  the  forms 
of  command  under  which  our  I^ord  himself  attests 
its  imperative  character.  “  Shall  receive,”  “shall 
find,”  “shall  be  opened  to  you”  are  some  of  the 
promises  by  which  he  assures  its  answers. 

“  If  ye  shall  ask  anything  in  my  name,  I  will  do 
it.”  (John  xiv.  14.)  “Ye  shall  ask  what  ye  will 
and  it  shall  be  done  unto  you.”  (John  xv.  7. ) 
“Men  ought  always  to  pray;”  “I  would  that  men 
pray  everywhere  ;  ”  “  Pray  without  ceasing  ;  ”  “  In 
everything  .  .  .  make  your  requests  known  unto 
God”  are  but  other  forms  of  expression  that  serve 
further  to  magnify  the  privilege  and  enforce  the 
duty. 

To  give  God’s  Word  opportunity  to  reply  at 
once  against  the  Pharisaism,  fanaticism,  skepti- 

(59) 


6o 


Prayer  and  Missions. 


cism,  and  infidelity,  let  it  be  asked  :  First,  what  is 
prayer,  and  what  is  it  for  ?  He  who  instituted  it 
as  the  law  of  giving  and  receiving  in  his  kingdom 
alone  can  answer.  He  says  that  it  is  not  {a)  a 
framing  of  words,  however  numerous  or  loud,  or 
elegant  or  eloquent  they  may  be.  We  are  not 
heard  for  much  speaking;  [b)  it  is  not  informing 
God  as  to  who  we  are  or  what  we  want:  “Your 
Heavenly  Father  knoweth  that  ye  have  need 
.  .  .  before  ye  ask  him;”  [c)  it  is  not  to  make 

God  willing  to  give  us  things :  “If  ye  then  being 
evil  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  unto  your  chil¬ 
dren,  how  much  more  shall  your  Father  .  .  . 

in  heaven  give  good  things  to  them  that  ask  him.” 
God  is  always  willing,  always  trying  to  bless  his 
needy,  helpless  children.  Indeed,  he  does  actual¬ 
ly  bless  every  one  to  the  extent  that  one  will  allow 
him.  The  sole  trouble  is  that  men’s  badness 
turns  God’s  blessings  into  curses.  He  who  walks 
in  the  counsel  of  the  ungodly,  stands  in  the  way 
of  the  sinner,  or  sits  in  the  seat  of  the  scornful, 
makes  blessing  impossible  to  himself  God’s 
gold  is  turned  to  dross ;  God’s  grace  into  an  eat¬ 
ing  canker. 

Christ’s  example  and  precepts  tell  us  what 
prayer  is  and  what  it  is  for.  P'roin  his  example 
we  learn  that  it  is  personal,  persistent  commun¬ 
ion  with  the  Father,  in  the  strength  of  which 
every  important  thing  is  done,  and  done  success¬ 
fully.  It  is  the  alliance  that  weakness  makes 
with  strength,  and  need  with  infinite  resources. 
His  precepts  confirm  and  enforce  the  lesson  of 
his  example:  “When  thou  prayest,  enter  into 


Prayer  and  Missions. 


6i 


thy  closet,  and  when  thou  hast  shut  the  door  pray 
to  thy  Father  who  is  in  secret.”  Again,  by  put¬ 
ting  words  on  our  lips  that  cover  the  entire  range 
of  real  human  need,  and  saying,  “When  ye  pray, 
say.”  He  not  only  makes  plain  the  answer  to  our 
double  question,  but  also  makes  it  easy  for  the 
weakest,  the  most  ignorant,  the  most  helpless  to 
pray — to  pray  effectually.  It  must  never  be  for¬ 
gotten  that  all  right  prayer  is,  in  a  most  impor- 
I  tant  sense,  secret — it  is  personal  wrestling  with 
God;  and  others  can  be  “led”  in  prayer  only  in 
so  far  as  they,  too,  enter  into  the  same  exercise. 

I  When,  amid  the  pomp  and  parade  of  public  occa- 
,  sions,  we  forget  this,  our  so-called  praying  ceases 
to  be  prayer. 

Christ’s  precepts  further  teach  us  that  an  intel¬ 
ligent  recognition  of  the  divine  Fatherhood  is  of 
the  very  essence  of  prayer  (only  a  father  can 
comprehend  his  children’s  needs)  ;  that  a  felt  ap¬ 
preciation  of  the  brotherhood  of  man  is  of  its 
!  spirit  (God  is  “Our  Father”)  ;  that  reverent  awe 
I  and  adoring  love  must  constitute  its  atmosphere 
(  (his  place  is  heaven,  his  name  is  holy)  ;  that  the 
I  headship  of  Christ  and  the  ])erfecting  of  his  will 
on  earth  is  its  final  desideratum  ( “  Thy  kingdom 
come,  thy  will  be  done  on  earth”)  ;  that  forgive¬ 
ness  of  those  who  trespass  against  us  is  the  con¬ 
dition  of  its  being  heard  (“Forgive  us  .  .  . 

as  we  forgive  those”)  ;  that  a  sense  of  utter  de- 
f  pendence  and  absolute  trust  is  its  invariable  at- 
i  titude  (“  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread  ”)  ;  that 
I  ascription  of  authoiity  and  power  and  glory  to 
{  him  who  is  alone  able  to  do  all  these  things  is  its 

t 

V 


62 


Prayer  and  Missions. 


only  appropriate  conclusion.  Such  things  being 
prayer  in  its  essence  and  practice,  another  ques¬ 
tion  of  vital  import  is :  Who  ought  to  pray  ? 
Christ’s  answer  is:  “Men  ought  to  pray.”  All 
men  ought  to  pray.  It  is  just  as  much  one  man’s 
duty  to  pray  as  another’s.  It  is  just  as  much  one 
man’s  privilege  to  pray  as  another’s.  The  differ¬ 
ence,  the  sole  difference,  is  found  in  that  for 
which  the  prayer  is  made.  The  unsaved  man  is 
shut  up  to  the  prayer  of  the  publican  :  “  God  be 
merciful  to  me  a  sinner.”  Till  that  is  prayed  and 
answered  all  other  prayer  is  impertinent,  and  may 
be  blasphemous.  After  that  he  has  spiritual  lib¬ 
erty  and  enlargement,  and  shall  find  access  and 
answer  in  all  need.  Men  ought  to  pray  because 
they  are  men,  sinful,  needy,  helpless,  and  God 
only  can  save  and  help  them.  Thank  God  men, 
all  men,  may  pray  because  Jesus  has  opened  the 
way,  saying:  “  I  am  the  door;  by  me  if  any  man 
enter  in  he  shall  be  saved,  and  shall  go  in  and  out 
and  find  pasture.”  The  most  unreasonable,  the  most 
wilfully  disobedient,  the  most  ungrateful  being 
in  God’s  universe,  is  the  one  who  does  not  pray. 

Let  it  again  be  asked :  How  ought  men  to  pray  ? 
The  first  answer  that  suggests  itself  is :  “  Men 
ought  to  pray  humbly.”  God  is  in  heaven,  we  are 
on  earth ;  God  is  infinitely  holy,  we  are  sin-defiled ; 
men  cannot  afford  to  put  on  airs  when  talking  to 
God.  To  show  the  contrast  between  self-confident 
and  humble  prayer,  the  Master  spake  this  parable : 
“Two  men  went  up  into  the  temple  to  pray;  the 
one  a  Pharisee,  and  the  other  a  publican.  The 
Pharisee  stood  and  prayed  thus  with  himself,  God, 


Prayer  and  Missio?is. 


63 


I  thank  thee,  that  I  am  not  as  other  men  are. 
.  .  .  The  publican  .  .  .  smote  upon  his  breast, 
saying,  God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner.”  Jesus 
said  :  “This  man  went  down  to  his  house  justified 
( approved )  rather  than  the  other :  for  every  one 
that  exhalteth  himself  shall  be  abased;  and  he 
that  humbleth  himself  shall  be  exhalted.” 

But  men  ought  to  pray  in  faith.  “  That  which 
I  is  not  of  faith  is  sin.”  “Without  faith  it  is  im- 
j  possible  to  please  God ;  ”  but  “  if  ye  have  faith  as 
a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  .  .  .  nothing  shall  be 

impossible  unto  you.”  “When  ye  pray,  believe 
that  ye  have  the  things  for  which  ye  ask,  and  ye 
I  shall  have  them.” 

Further,  men  ought  to  pray  importunately. 
“  Men  ought  always  to  pray  and  not  to  faint.”  If 
the  unjust  judge,  sensitive  to  neither  divine  nor 
i  human  obligations,  avenged  the  poor  widow  sini- 
;  ply  to  avoid  being  wearied  by  her  continual  com- 
j  ing,  shall  not  God  hear  and  answer  his  children 
who  cry  importunately  to  him?  Jesus  says  he 
will.  The  success  attending  the  importunate  per¬ 
sistence  of  the  Syro-Phoenician  woman  further 
illustrates  the  answer,  and  demonstrates  the  fact 
that  our  Father  only  asks  that  we  allow  him  to 
I  have  his  way  in  us  in  order  that,  in  the  end,  we 
I  may  have  fully  our  w^ay  with  him. 

Another  thought-provoking  question  in  this 
connection  is.  When ,  and  where  ought  men  to 
pray?  “Everywhere,  .  .  .  always.”  Specific- 

ially  {a)  in  the  closet.  No  man  is  a  safe  man  in 
any  relation  or  business  of  life  who  does  not,  in 
the  “  secret  place,”  make  God  his  confidant,  his 


64 


Prayer  and  Missions. 


counselor.  ((^ )  In  the  family.  This  is  God’s  oldest 
institution.  It  is  the  basis  of  every  other  legiti¬ 
mate  institution.  No  man  appreciates  it  or  has 
any  business  at  the  head  of  it  who  does  not,  as 
Priest,  Prophet,  and  King,  “  command  ”  his  house¬ 
hold  after  him  for  God.  [c)  In  the  social  circle 
of  the  Church.  This  is  God’s  family,  and  every 
member,  from  the  least  to  the  greatest,  ought  to 
be  able  and  to  feel  free  to  talk  with  the  common 
Father  about  the  mutual  interests  of  all.  [d)  In 
the  great  congregation.  He  who  has  power  with 
God  has  power  with  men,  and  in  the  same  propor¬ 
tion.  The  secret  of  our  power  to  do  men  good  is 
our  ability  to  command  the  means  of  grace  in 
their  interest,  especially  in  the  house  of  God. 

Such,  partially  at  least,  is  prayer ;  and  such  is 
the  part  it  plays  in  Christ’s  kingdom  on  earth. 
The  history  of  its  answers  is  the  history  of  the 
Church’s  victories  all  down  the  ages. 

Mis.sions  constitute  the  Church’s  best  endeavor 
( )  to  realize  an  answer  to  the  prayer  taught  her 
by  her  divine  Ford;  “Thy  kingdom  come.”  [b) 
To  vindicate  the  challenge  given  by  that  same 
Lord  to  the  powers  of  earth  and  darkness:  “This 
gospel  of  the  kingdom  shall  be  preached  in  all 
the  world  for  a  witness  to  the  nations.”  (<•)  To 
verify  the  promise  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  “That  at 
the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee  should  bow,  of 
things  in  heaven  and  things  in  earth  and  of  things 
under  the  earth ;  and  that  every  tongue  should 
confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord  for  the  glory  of 
God  the  Father.’’  (  d )  To  fulfill  the  prophecy  that 
“  The  kingdoms  of  this  world  are  become  the  king- 


Prayer  and  Blissions. 


65 


doms  of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ.”  Missions 
form  the  Church’s  vanguard.  Where  they  bivouac 
to-day  she  will  camp  to-morrow.  For  nearly  two 
thousand  3^ears  she  has  followed  up  other  line  of 
march,  she  has  found  no  other  means  of  advance. 
She  must  pioneer  the  regions  beyond  wuth  her 
best,  her  most  reliable  men  ;  her  Calebs  and  her 
Joshuas,  her  Pauls  and  Barnabases,  her  Jeromes 
and  Augustines,  her  Las  Casases  and  Xaviers,  her 
Cokes  and  Careys  and  Judsons  and  Moffats  and 
Livingstones,  and  on  to  the  end  of  the  roll.  Mis¬ 
sions  can  succeed  onl^^  as  they  are  projected  and 
developed  by  men  called  of  God  and  sent  out  by 
the  Church  under  the  direction  of  the  H0I3"  Spirit. 
There  is  no  authoritative  model  for  enterprising 
missions  except  the  first  one.  The  Holy  vSpirit 
said:  “Separate  me  Barnabas  and  Saul  for  the 
work  w'hereunto  I  have  called  them.  And  wdien 
they  had  fasted  and  prayed,  and  laid  their  hands 
on  them,  they  sent  them  awa\a” 

Pra3'er,  then,  is  the  ver3^  atmosphere  in  which 
missions  are  born,  the  ver3r  inspiration  under 
wdiich  they  progress,  the  veiw  generator  of  the 
power  1)3’  which  they  wnn  final  success.  To  pra3’ 
for  missimis  is  the  most  reasonable,  the  most 
necessary,  the  most  imperative  dut3^  of  ever\’ 
Christian  and  of  the  entire  Church.  A  pra3dng 
Church  is  the  onU-  place  where  true  missionaries 
are  bred.  A  praying  Church  is  the  only  place 
wdiere  true  missions  are  projected.  A  praying 
Church  furnishes,  under  God,  the  only  support 
upon  which  both  missionaries  and  missions  can 
lean  with  assurance. 


66 


Prayer  and  Missions. 


Missions  constitute  the  hope  of  the  world;  the 
prayers  of  the  Church  constitute  the  hope  of  mis¬ 
sions.  Our  blessed  Master,  looking  out  upon  the 
world  lying  in  wickedness,  through  the  suffering 
multitudes  that  waited  on  his  ministry,  said:  “The 
harvest  truly  is  plenteous,  but  the  laborers  are  few; 
pray  ye  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  that  he  will  send 
forth  laborers  into  his  harvest.” 

The  harvest  is  the  Lord’s  alone.  Only  divinely 
called  men  can  reap  it.  Men  are  called  only  as  the 
Church  prays.  This  is  God’s  order.  There  is  di¬ 
vine  philosophy  in  it,  because  he  who  prays  will  be 
willing  to  go  if  God  calls  him;  he  who  prays  will 
be  willing  to  send  if  God  calls  his  loved  ones;  he 
who  prays  will  be  willing  to  give  to  send  others  if 
God  calls  them. 

Smile,  Lord,  on  each  divine  attempt 
To  spread  the  Gospel’s  rays ; 

And  bnild  on  sin’s  demolished  throne 
The  temples  of  th3'  grace. 


MONEY  AND  MISSIONS. 


TN  sound  the  words  mingle  musically,  but  in 
association  the  ideas  clash  unharmoniously.  The 
one  stands  for  the  world’s  emancipation,  the  other 
for  its  enthrallment;  the  one  represents  the  God  of 
heaven,  the  other  the  god  of  this  world;  one  essays 
obedience  to  Christ’s  last  and  largest  command, 
“Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  gospel 
to  every  creature,”  the  other  bars  the  very  entrance 
to  his  kingdom — “I  say  unto  you,  it  is  easier  for  a 
camel  to  go  through  the  eye  of  a  needle,  than  for 
a  rich  man  to  enter  the  kingdom  of  God.” 

Our  theme  is  a  paradox.  The  discussion  of  two 
or  three  questions,  however,  may  unveil  its  hidden 
truth. 

I. 

Why  Should  We  Have  Missions? 

{a)  Because  Christ  commands  them.  He  says 
with  an  authority  that  cannot  be  gainsaid,  with  a 
distinctness  that  cannot  be  misunderstood,  “Go 
make  disciples  of  all  nations;”  “This  gospel  of 
the  kingdom  shall  be  preached  in  all  the  world;  ” 
“Ye  shall  be  witnesses  to  me  both  in  Jerusalem, 
and  in  all  Judea,  and  in  Samaria,  and  unto  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth.”  The  Church  dare 
not  disobey,  else  she  denies,  yes  betrays,  her  Lord. 

{d)  Because  the  whole  world  needs  them.  Where 
they  have  not  gone,  “the  whole  world  lieth  in 
wickedness.”  The  stupendous  and  magnificent 
ruins  of  Egypt,  Babylon,  Ninevah,  Greece,  and 

(67) 


68 


Money  and  Missions. 


Rome  attest  at  once  their  glor}^  and  their  shame. 
“Professing  themselves  to  be  wise,  they  became 
fools,  and  changed  the  glory  of  the  incorruptible 
God  into  an  image  made  like  to  corrnptible  man, 
and  to  birds,  and  four-footed  beasts,  and  creeping 
things.  .  .  .  Who  changed  the  truth  of  God 

into  a  lie,  and  worshiped  the  creature  more  than 
the  Creator.”  Thus  the  zenith  of  their  several  civ¬ 
ilizations  became  the  nadir  of  their  morals  and  re¬ 
ligions.  Then  God  smote  them  one  by  one,  and 
their  ruins  attest  at  once  the  stroke  of  his  hand  and 
the  truth  of  his  Word.  Modern  heathendom  is  no 
better  than  they  were;  nay,  it  is  worse — more  gross, 
more  degraded,  more  vile,  more  vicious,  more 
bestial.  Africa,  India,  China,  Japan,  the  islands  of 
the  sea,  one  billion  strong — an  innumerable  multi¬ 
tude — except  here  and  there  where  the  bivouac  fires 
of  missions  have  been  kindled,  still  “sit  in  dark¬ 
ness,  and  dwell  in  the  region  and  shadow  of  death.” 
Modern  civilization,  itself  the  child  of  Christianity, 
with  all  its  wealth  of  political,  commercial,  educa¬ 
tional,  social,  and  mechanical  appliances,  has  no 
power  to  do  them  good.  It  can  onl}’  galvanize  the 
cadaverous  mass,  and  make  it  all  the  more  hideous. 
Witness  Kngland’s  endeavor  in  India  under  the 
rule  of  her  Bast  India  Compan3^  Witness  Spain’s 
colonial  history  in  South  America  and  the  islands. 
Witness  the  dark  page-  in  liistor^^  that  we  ourselves 
have  made  in  dealing  with  the  North  American  In¬ 
dians.  The  world’s  need  is  the  Bible.  Nothing 
can  substitute  it — the  Bible  in  the  letter,  and  in  the 
hearts  and  lives  of  those  who  bear  it.  Hence  mis¬ 


sions. 


Money  and  Missions. 


69 


(c)  The  world  needs  them  because  the  Church 
herself  cannot  live  without  missions.  It  is  giving 
to  others  that  keeps  alive  the  grace  that  saves. 
“  Give  and  it  shall  be  given  unto  you;  ”  “  It  is  more 
blessed  to  give  than  to  receive;”  “There  is  that 
which  giveth  and  yet  increaseth.” 

G(Xid,  the  more  communicated,  more  abundant  grows; 

The  giver  not  impoverished,  but  enriched  the  more. 

The  Church  may  count  her  heart  beats  by  the 
number  of  honest,  earnest  efforts  she  has  made  to 
give  the  gospel  to  every  creature.  The  world  does 
not  need  missions  more  to  bring  it  light  and  life 
than  does  the  Church  need  missions  to  trim  and 
foster  that  life  and  light  within  herself.  Under  the 
Old  Testament  dispensation  the  Church  was  an 
oracle.  Her  symbols  were  the  temple,  the  altar, 
the  mercy  seat.  Now  she  is  an  evangel.  Her  sym¬ 
bols  are  a  flying  angel,  a  trumpet,  a  roll.  Her 
mission,  her  sole  mission,  is  to  preach  the  everlast¬ 
ing  gospel  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  This  brings 
us  to  question 

H. 

Why  Shoutd  Christians  Givk  Money  to  Mis¬ 
sions  ? 

( « )  It  is  not  because  money  per  se  is  necessary 
to  the  extension  of  Christ’s  kingdom.  This  answer 
is  predicated  of  several  considerations.  ( i )  Christ’s 
own  personal  and  official  estimate  of  money.  This 
estimate  is  found  in  such  utterances  as  these ; 
“Verily  I  say  unto  you.  That  a  rich  man  shall 
hardly  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 


70 


Money  and  Missions. 


It  is  easier  for  a  camel  to  go  through  the  eye  of  a 
needle,  than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  into  the  king¬ 
dom  of  God.”  “They  that  will  be  rich  fall  into 
temptation  and  a  snare,  and  into  many  foolish  and 
hurtful  lusts,  which  drown  men  in  destruction  and 
perdition.  For  the  love  of  money  is  the  root  of  all 
evil:  which  while  some  coveted  after,  they  have 
erred  from  the  faith,  and  pierced  themselves  through 
with  many  sorrows.”  With  this  estimate  of  the 
evil  and  danger  attending  the  accumulation  of 
money,  it  is  not  reasonable  to  suppose  that  Christ 
intended  in  any  sense  to  condition  the  success  of 
his  cause  on  anybody’s  money. 

A  second  consideration  of  which  this  answer  is 
predicated  is  Christ’s  own  example  in  inaugurating 
missions.  “I  have  given  you  an  example,”  com¬ 
ing  from  the  lips  of  Him  who  spake  as  never  man 
spake,  furnishes  at  once  the  highest  reason  and  the 
best  way  for  doing  everything.  “The  Son  of  man 
is  come  to  seek  and  save  that  which  was  lost.” 
This  was  his  mission.  Out  of  it  every  true  Chris¬ 
tian  mission  has  grown.  “Foxes  have  holes,  and 
the  birds  of  the  air  have  nests;  but  the  Son  of  man 
hath  not  where  to  lay  his  head.”  “Ye  know  the 
grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that,  though  he  was 
rich,  yet  for  our  sakes  he  became  poor,  that  ye  by 
his  poverty  might  be  rich.”  That  was  his  manner. 

‘  ‘  Let  this  mind  be  in  you,  which  was  also  in  Christ 
Jesus:  Who,  being  in  the  form  of  God,  thought  it 
not  robbery  to  be  equal  with  God:  But  made  him¬ 
self  of  no  reputation,  and  took  upon  him  the  form 
of  a  servant:  .  .  .  i^nd  being  found  in  fashion 

as  a  man,  he  humbled  himself,  and  became  obedient 


Money  and  Missions. 


71 


unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the  cross.”  This 
was  his  example,  “It  is  enough  for  the  disciple 
to  be  as  his  Tord,  and  the  servant  as  his  master.  ’  ’ 

A  third  consideration  of  which  this  answer  is 
predicated  is  Christ’s  order  for  propagating  mis¬ 
sions.  Sending  his  disciples  to  “the  lost  sheep  of 
the  house  of  Israel,”  he  said:  “Provide  neither 
silver,  nor  gold,  nor  brass  in  your  purses.”  The 
reason  he  gave  was,  “  The  laborer  is  worthy  of  his 
hire.  ’  ’  Again,  when  he  enlarged  their  commission, 
and  sent  them  to  the  nations,  he  did  not  change 
the  order  of  going,  but  simply  adds:  “To,  I  am 
with  you  every  day,”  implying  that  he  would  con¬ 
tinue  to  care  for  them  everywhere  and  always  just 
as  here  and  now.  ‘  ‘And  ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto 
me  both  in  Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judea,  and  in 
Samaria,  and  unto  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth,, 
.  the  Hol}^  Ghost  having  come  upon  you,” 
Still  another  consideration  of  which  this  answer 
is  predicated  is  Paul’s  entire  service  as  the  first  and 
always  the  principal  exponent  of  Christ’s  order 
among  the  Gentiles.  So  far  as  the  record  shows, 
he  went  out  from  Antioch  on  each  of  his  three 
tours  without  financial  provision  for  even  his 
traveling  expenses;  yet  no  man,  against  such 
numerous,  and  great,  and  cruel,  and  persistent 
antagonisms,  ever  did  such  and  so  much  labor  for 
the  world’s  conversion.  Having  preached  from 
Jerusalem  round  to  Illyricum,  he  said:  “I  must 
see  Rome  also ;  ”  and,  no  other  way  being  open, 
he  invoked  the  chains  of  a  Roman  prisoner,  and 
braved  the  unmatched  cruelty  of  Nero. 

The  final  consideration  of  which  this  answer  is 


72 


Money  and  Dlissions. 


predicated  is  the  history  of  the  Church  for  the 
first  three  hundred  years.  During  this  time  she 
came  nearer  compassing  the  known  world  with 
the  gospel  message  than  slie  has  done  since;  yet, 
until  the  unhol}’  concubinage  instituted  by  Con¬ 
stantine  taught  her  Caesar’s  ways  and  infused  into 
her  Caesar’s  spirit,  money  as  a  factor  was  unmen¬ 
tioned  and  unknown. 

The  modern  movement  of  the  Church  for  mis¬ 
sions  has  been  hindered,  doubtless;  certainly  it 
has  been  divested  of  much  of  its  authority  and 
power  by  the  disposition  often  manifested  to  urge 
the  world’s  needs  before  Christ’s  commands,  and 
to  magnify  money  as  a  factor  in  supplying  those 
needs. 

Missions  have  been  relegated  to  the  place  of  a 
prot'eg'e,  while  the  Church  has  posed  as  a  patron. 
Missions  have  been  categoried  among  the  “  benev¬ 
olences,”  and  money  has  been  begged  for  their 
“support.”  I  suggest  that  we  need  to  shift  the 
whole  ground  of  the  Church’s  responsibility ;  that 
we  need  to  change  largely  the  motive  for  giving 
to  missions.  The  cpiestion,  then,  reverts :  Why 
should  Christians  give  money  to  missions  ? 

((6)  To  save  themselves  from  the  curse  that  nec¬ 
essarily  follows  the  accumulation  of  money,  or 
even  the  effort  to  accumulate  money,  for  its  own 
sake.  In  God’s  economy  one  of  the  worst  things, 
if  not  the  very  worst,  that  can  befall  a  man  is  to 
get  rich.  Under  the  Old  Testament  regime  this 
was  provided  against  by  a  system  of  tithes  and 
offerings,  Sabbatical  and  jubilee  years.  Even  the 
king  was  forbidden  to  heap  up  gold  and  silver, 


Money  and  Missions. 


73 


and  David’s  fall  and  Solomon’s  ruin  followed  in 
the  train  of  ills  which  began  with  the  violation  of 
this  command.  In  Christ’s  view,  being  rich  seems 
to  cut  off  a  man’s  title  to  an  eternal  inheritance 
more  effectually,  more  surely  than  anything  else. 
What  he  says  of  a  man  losing  his  life  eternally  by 
saving  it  now,  includes  his  money,  and  applies  to 
it  with  special  force:  “Woe  to  you  that  are  rich, 
for  ye  have  received  your  consolation ;  ”  “  So  is  he 
that  layeth  up  treasure  for  himself,  and  is  not 
rich  toward  God ;  ’’  “  Go  to  now,  ye  rich  men,  weep 
and  howl  for  your  miseries  that  shall  come  upon 
you.  Your  riches  are  corrupted,  and  your  gar¬ 
ments  are  moth-eaten.  Your  gold  and  silver  is 
cankered ;  and  the  rust  of  them  shall  be  a  witness 
against  you,  and  shall  eat  your  flesh  as  it  were 
fire.  Ye  have  heaped  treasure  together  for  the 
last  days.”  This  view  of  the  Master  is  .so  utterly 
at  variance  with  human  philosophy  and  ordinary 
human  practice,  so  far  above  the  deliverances  of 
the  popular  pulpit  and  the  following  of  the  aver¬ 
age  pew,  that  it  needs  to  be  dwelt  upon.  The  in¬ 
terpretation  of  these  passages  is  not  to  be  restrict¬ 
ed  to  cases  of  ill-gotten  or  inordinately  loved 
wealth,  as  is  often  taught.  They  mean  just  what 
they  say.  Would  that  the  Church  and  her  minis¬ 
ters  were  as  faithful  in  dealing  with  rich  men  to¬ 
day  as  Christ  was  with  the  young  ruler !  In  many 
places  the  Church  is  little  more  than  a  social 
guild  patronized  by  rich  men,  who  are  in  turn 
petted  and  pandered  to,  as  a  suitable  reward  for 
the  modicum  of  their  money  paid  into  the  Lord’s 
treasury.  The  Church  is  thus  prostituted,  and 


74 


Money  and  Missions. 


the  man  buys  his  way  through  it  to  a  ruinous 
reckoning  with  his  Master. 

Many  of  us  have  yet  to  learn  that  to  be  a  Chris¬ 
tian  we  must  absolutely  do  these  three  things : 
Ivov^e  God  supremely,  follow  Jesus  Christ  implic¬ 
itly,  keep  the  Golden  Rule  honestly.  Many  more 
have  yet  to  learn  three  other  things :  That  no 
man  can  love  God  and  love  the  world  at  the  same 
time;  that  no  man  can  follow  Jesus  Christ  and 
hoard  up  money  for  himself;  that  no  man  can 
keep  the  Golden  Rule  and  get  rich. 

Granting  all  this,  it  may  still  be  asked :  “  Why 
give  money  specially  to  missions?”  I  answer, 
because  giving  to, nothing  else  will  substitute  it. 
It  is  right,  it  is  our  Christian  duty,  to  give  to 
many  things  in  the  home  land,  chief  among  them 
is  the  Church  and  her  institutions;  but  in  doing 
this,  at  the  best,  but  a  moiety  of  our  gifts  can 
claim  to  be  for  Christ’s  sake.  The  other  half  is 
made  up  variously  of  philanthroph}^,  patriotism, 
social  claims,  hnancial  considerations,  denomina¬ 
tional  rivalry,  personal  pride,  etc. 

The  whole  thing  is  largely  a  giving  to  our  own, 
if  not  to  ourselves.  We  expect  and  receive  re¬ 
turns  in  kind.  But  to  give  ourselves,  our  dear 
ones,  our  money  to  put  the  gospel  where  it  is  not 
— in  the  dark  places  and  darker  souls  of  heathen¬ 
dom — is  to  claim  the  highest,  the  surest  oppor¬ 
tunity  to  do  something  for  Christ’s  sake — some¬ 
thing  that  is  not  vitiated  by  any  form  of  selfish¬ 
ness. 

With  money  for  missions  Christ  enables  the 
Church  to  hasten  the  going  of  its  messengers  by 


Money  a7id  Missions. 


75 


using  the  improved  appliances  of  modern  travel. 
With  money  for  missions  Christ  enables  the 
Church  to  substitute  the  written  Word  in  many 
languages  for  the  miraculous  “gift  of  tongues.’^ 
With  money  for  missions  Christ  enables  the 
Church  in  the  use  of  the  most  improved  means 
and  methods  to  substitute  the  miraculous  healings 
of  primitive  Christianity  with  medical  skill  and 
service.  With  money  for  missions  Christ  enables 
the  Church  to  meet  the  world’s  bodily  and  spirit¬ 
ual  needs,  and  at  the  same  time  ‘  ‘  escape  the  cor¬ 
ruption  that  is  in  the  world  through  lust.” 

Christianity  furnishes  the  only  safe  formula  for 
the  use  of  money.  It  may  be  stated  under  four 
distinct  heads  : 

1.  Industry  and  honesty  in  its  accumulation. 
Diligence  in  business.  “  Provide  things  honest  in 
the  sight  of  all  men.” 

2.  Econoni)'^  in  saving  it.  “He  also  that  is 
slothful  in  his  work  is  brother  to  him  that  is  a 
great  waster.”  “Gather  up  the  fragments  that 

!  remain,  that  nothing  be  lost.” 

3.  Generosity  in  using  it.  “Given  to  hospital- 
‘  ity  ;  ”  “  Give  to  him  that  asketh  thee  ;  ”  “  Give 

and  it  shall  be  given  thee.  ’  ’ 

4.  Loyalty  to  Christ  in  making,  saving,  and  giv¬ 
ing.  “Do  all  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus;” 

i  “  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  right¬ 
eousness.  ’  ’ 

;  Just  as  surely  as  Christ  has  redeemed  this  world 
to  himself  ;  just  as  surely  as  he  has  set  up  his  king¬ 
dom  for  its  government;  just  as  surely  as  he  has 
made  the  Church  to  be  the  working  force  of  that 


76 


Money  and  Missions. 


kingdom — just  that  surely  do  missions  constitute 
the  objective  point  of  Church  enterprise;  just  that 
surely  does  the  above  formula  dictate  the  only 
right  use  of  money;  just  that  surely  will  the  “  King 
of  kings”  settle  with  each  one  of  us  according  to 
these  thrilling  and  destiny-determining  words: 
‘  ‘  When  the  Son  of  man  shall  come  in  his  glory, 
and  all  the  holy  angels  with  him,  then  shall  he  sit 
upon  the  throne  of  his  glory :  and  before  him  shall 
be  gathered  all  nations:  and  he  shall  separate  them 
one  from  another,  as  a  shepherd  divideth  his  sheep 
from  the  goats:  and  he  shall  set  the  sheep  on  his 
right  hand,  but  the  goats  on  the  left.  Then  shall 
the  King  say  unto  them  on  his  right  hand.  Come, 
ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  pre¬ 
pared  for  you  from  the  foundation  of  the  world: 
for  I  was  an  hungered,  and  ye  gave  me  meat:  I  was 
thirsty,  and  ye  gave  me  drink:  I  was  a  stranger, 
and  ye  took  me  in:  naked,  and  ye  clothed  me:  I 
was  sick,  and  ye  visited  me:  I  was  in  prison,  and 
ye  came  unto  me.  .  .  .  Verily  I  say  unto  you. 

Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  the  least  of  these 
my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me.  Then  shall 
he  say  also  unto  them  on  the  left  hand.  Depart 
from  me,  ye  cursed :  .  .  .  for  I  was  an  hungered, 

and  ye  gave  me  no  meat:  I  was  thirsty,  and  ye 
gave  me  no  drink:  I  was  a  stranger,  and  ye  took 
me  not  in:  naked,  and  ye  clothed  me  not:  sick, 
and  in  prison,  and  ye  visited  me  not. 

Verily  I  say  unto  you.  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  not  to 
one  of  the  least  of  these,  ye  did  it  not  to  me.” 

How  gracious  the  privilege  of  transmitting  the 
gold  that  perishes  and  cankers  and  curses,  into  the 


i 


Money  and  Missions.  77 

currency  of  heaven!  Hear  what  the  Master  says: 
“I  say  unto  you,  make  to  yourselves  friends  of  the 
mammon  of  unrighteousness;  that  when  ye  fail, 
they  may  receive  you  into  everlasting  habitations.” 

”  Money  and  Missions.”  The  truth  of  the  para¬ 
dox  is  unveiled. 


I 


